News Release
For immediate release
May 18, 2011

Maungatautari Battle Intensifies

The battle over the Maungatautari Ecological Island has taken new twists this week with another farmer locking his gates and so preventing Trust workers from maintaining the pest proof fence. And in a separate action, a Maori Land Court judge agreed to prohibit the lead negotiator for Ngati Koroki Kahukura from entering land owned by another Maori land trust, that provides access to the southern enclosure and the mountain off the end of Tari Road.

While the farmer has been aligned with the efforts of the Maungatautari Land Owners Council, until now he had not locked his gates. But when he recently read that new releases of endangered birds are still taking place on the mountain, even though it is quite possible the fence will need to be dismantled, he believed that was irresponsible and so is now taking a more active stand.

Landowners Council spokesperson Peter Holmes says all re-introductions of endangered birds should be stopped as DOC cannot guarantee the fence will be in place inside of two months.

“We are also very concerned that MEIT workers are still coming on to private land on which they have been told not to trespass. This is a highly provocative move which shows disregard for private property rights and we will be taking further action.”

He says MEIT and Ngati Koroki Kahukura are telling a lot of untruths, but in the end what they are saying is irrelevant. What is important is what is happening right now.

The Maori family, whose 4G4 Trust owns the land on which the entry gates to the mountain and the southern enclosure are built, are being very badly treated by MEIT and Waipa District Council, he says.

The Minister of Conservation also chose not to meet with the family involved in the 4G4 Trust or the Maungatautari Community Volunteers and Funders Group when she was recently in the Waikato to speak to the stakeholders involved in the project.

“That was extraordinarily bad judgement and now we demand that their points of view as landowners, volunteers and funders, are heard.

“The land at the end of Tari Road where the gates to the mountain are situated is the 4G4 Block owned by private Maori owners and the project will always require their goodwill. As well, having the southern enclosure built partly on their land also requires their goodwill. However, Ngati Koroki Kahukura negotiators have antagonised the family, as they have everyone else, and so the owners decided to weld shut the gates. Those welds were then broken by interests associated with Ngati Koroki Kahukura according to witnesses.

He says that act should send a shock wave throughout New Zealand as there is now a government proceeding with a Treaty claim that is clearly going to override the private property rights of landowners and farmers.
“If they can do it here they can do it anywhere in New Zealand.

“Ngati Koroki Kahukura has been prepared to force their way on to private property. They are clearly of a mind to do that and so we ask, whose property is next?”

Holmes says it is also irresponsible of the Office of Treaty Settlements to continue with its progress to a deed of settlement with Ngati Koroki Kahukura even though the community made it clear they wanted full consultation before anything is advanced. The Office of Treaty Settlements has failed to consult with the wider public about the NKK claim on the 2500ha of Crown land on Maungatautari. The public now has a great interest in this matter as the value of Maungatautari grows for both the conservation of biodiversity and as a visitor destination.

“We asked the Prime Minister’s office to look into this after the community so strongly expressed their wishes at a public meeting in Cambridge in February.

“So everyone must be clear; if this Treaty settlement proceeds, then on the same day the pest proof fence must be moved off a large number of farms. We therefore urge the Prime Minister to stop this madness and to listen to the community, consult with them and ask for their opinion. This community needs to know the full details of this proposed deal between the Crown and NKK before it proceeds any further.

“Also government must know the Land Owners Council will not be entering into any mediation process unless the Maori family with interests in the 4G4 Block and the Maungatautari Volunteers and Funders Group are part of that mediation. The family should not have to be involved in court actions just to protect the rights they have over their own freehold property in the face of procrastination by Waipa District Council and the actions of NKK in forcing entry into their land.”

ENDS

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