Appropriations (2007/07 Estimates) Bill : Committee Stage
Te Ururoa Flavell; Treaty Spokesperson for the Maori Party
Wednesday 18 July 2007

Six months ago, not so far away from here in Pipitea Marae, there was a gathering of some 45 lawyers - a number which by all reports, appeared to be unprecedented in the history of the Waitangi Tribunal.

They were brought together by the call from Judge Carrie Wainwright, to attend a Judicial Conference in response to complaints from more than fifty Maori groups concerning unfair and prejudicial treatment by the Crown’s Treaty settlement process.

Mr Speaker, the report of the Maori Affairs Select Committee into Vote Treaty Negotiations gives little hope that there has been any change to this dire situation.

The report describes the Minister assuring the committee “that officials acted in good faith but that the document discovery process was inadequate at the time”; that an “exercise of judgment is required”; and that further advice on the process is required “to ensure that such oversights in the supply of evidence to claimant groups will not be repeated”.

Key words, Mr Speaker: Inadequate. Exercise of Judgment. Oversights.

What the Minister could have said comes straight from the report of the Tribunal into the Tamaki Makaurau Settlement Process, namely “The Crown’s policy and practice has been unfair, both as to process and outcome”.

Madam Speaker, in reviewing the 2007/08 Appropriations we can not ignore the conclusions of claimants and the Tribunal that fair and equitable settlements are being thwarted by inequities in the terms of settlement, the proposed redress set aside and a process too flawed to achieve progress.

Indeed, so desperate is the situation that the Waitangi Tribunal report on the Tamaki Makaurau settlement process urged that Crown negotiations with Ngati Whatua o Orakei must be halted immediately.

The crisis seems to have fallen on deaf ears though. The select committee cuts to the chase. In relation to concerns that the Crown had not consulted with other Tangata whenua throughout Tamaki Makaurau; the Minister assured the committee that “Ngati Whatua has engaged extensively with other claimants”.

Mr Speaker, who will take responsibility for the Crown’s failure to interact with cross-claimants as they promised; failure to provide accurate information about their status in the negotiations; evidence the Tribunal described as being provided “late, reluctantly and piecemeal”.

This is not just a one-off isolated crisis.
Less than a week after the Tamaki Makaurau report was issued, the Tribunal released another damning report, this time stating that during the Crown’s process in Te Arawa, OTS failed to act as an honest broker in the negotiation process, failed to discharge its Treaty and fiduciary duties to all Maori, and OTS did not act honourably and with the utmost good faith.

Under the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975, Provision 8 (i) entitled, Annual Report on Implementation of Recommendations, the Minister of Maori Affairs is required to report on progress each year being made in implementing recommendations of the Waitangi Tribunal?

Well, the Minister has not tabled a report at all since 1995, but apparently will do the catch up in the next weeks for twelve years. He may as well not do it now because the Waitangi Tribunal has done the job.

Twelve year of no monitoring by the Minister. Not good enough, and our people expect better.

There are, Mr Speaker, long-standing concerns of claimants. The Select Committee report makes it quite clear that despite the unanimous and ferocious opposition to the 1992 Fiscal Envelope, the Government is working to a fiscal cap – a cap which has continued to be applied to the Treaty settlement process since Day One. The report spells it out as “a general assumption of three $19 million settlements per year”.

Madam Speaker, we believe it is essential that claimant funding needs to be reviewed and increased, so that all parties are on a level playing field. As part of this, the fiscal cap on Treaty settlements must go.

The Maori Party will not minimise the actions of OTS as being a mere oversight – oversights which Tribunal views as “cavalier, unfair, generally uncooperative”. Something needs to change. Today.

The Tribunal has concluded that in many cases, the process of settling is damaging more relationships than it is improving. It is in light of this that we in the Maori Party are calling for an Independent Settlements Authority to achieve greater resolution to settlements – so that settlements can be settled earlier, be settled fairly and with a broad consensus for the process.

Madam Speaker, the Maori Party will not ignore the urgency of an under-funded and over-subscribed Tribunal. We know that the Tribunal needs to be resourced sufficiently so that they can deal with claims more speedily.

I want in closing to just return to the Minister’s words in response to the 2007/08 Estimates in Vote Treaty Negotiations. Inadequate. Exercise of Judgment. Oversights.

What we in this House – and indeed others outside – want to hear is a commitment to ensure impartiality, fairness, greater transparency, faster processing and better access to mediation.

The time for ‘oversights’ is well and truly over.

What we in this House want to hear is a commitment to Justice – Treaty Justice.

Ends

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