Waitangi Tribunal
Media Statement
Thursday 14 June 2007

EMBARGOED UNTIL 6.00AM FRIDAY 15 JUNE 2007

www.waitangitribunal.govt.nz

Waitangi Tribunal Report on the Tāmaki Makaurau Settlement Process Wai 1362

Today, the Waitangi Tribunal released its report on the Tāmaki Makaurau Settlement process. This report follows an urgent inquiry into claims that six different groups were adversely affected both by the process and proposed outcome of the Treaty settlement negotiations between Ngäti Whätua o Öräkei and the Crown.

The six claimant groups are Ngāti Te Ata, Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, Te Kawerau a Maki, Marutüāhu, the Hauraki Mäori Trust Board and Te Taoü. The Ngāti Whātua o Öräkei settlement area covers most of metropolitan Auckland, extending from near Dairy Flat in the north, to Piha in the west, and Mangere in the south.

The Tribunal members who inquired into the urgent claims were Judge Carrie Wainwright (Presiding Officer), Professor Wharehuia Milroy, and Ms Joanne Morris.

After examining how the Crown conducted its Treaty negotiations with Ngāti Whātua o Öräkei, and the resulting June 2006 Agreement in Principle, the Tribunal said “it is too late to rectify either the process or the outcome”.

Although it did not want to stand in the way of Ngāti Whātua o Öräkei and the Crown arriving at a settlement, the Tribunal considered that “the process has been too flawed for any of the proposed redress to proceed safely”.

The Tribunal therefore reluctantly concluded that the negotiation with Ngāti Whātua o Öräkei needs to be halted now, but that negotiations could resume “after remedial action is taken”.

The Tribunal recommends that the Crown should now “move quickly to initiate negotiations with other tangata whenua groups in Tāmaki Makaurau”. The Tribunal believes that the Crown could not settle safely with just one group in Auckland. “There, the groups’ interests are too intermingled for any settlement with one to go forward until the others’ interests have been fully understood”.

Only when all interests are considered together, could the Crown arrive at an arrangement that is fair to all.

ENDS

See... Extract from Tamaki Makaurau report 14 June 2007 (PDF)

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