Good News From the Court of Appeal Regards Ngati Kahu Land Claims

Yesterday afternoon the Court of Appeal issued its decision on the Waitangi Tribunal refusing to give Mangatū Incorporation (of Te Tairāwhiti) and Ngāti Kahu binding recommendations over Crown Forest and State Owned Enterprise lands in both our territories.

The 37 page Court of Appeal’s decision upheld the two decisions already issued by the High Court ordering the Tribunal to rehear Mangatū’s and then Ngati Kahu's applications for binding recommendations.

However it went further than the High Court decision in our case and made it very clear that the Tribunal cannot defer to the Crown’s treaty claims settlement policy in order to avoid making binding recommendations.

The decision effectively says that because Ngāti Kahu meets all the requirements for binding recommendations the Tribunal MUST make a decision on them. It cannot keep avoiding making a decision.

This is a clear win. However we did not get costs because we had already won in the High Court.

We will now wait to see whether the Crown appeals this decision to the Supreme Court.

The full decision can now be read on this link - https://www.docdroid.net/EvwSbam/court-of-appeal-decision-haronga-and-ngati-kahu-ca3532015.pdf.html

© Scoop Media