January 31, 2013
Crown’s word not good enough
Lawyers for the Crown will today finish their submissions to the Supreme Court on why the Government thinks it should be allowed to sell off 49 percent of Mighty River Power without making allowance for Māori water claims.
The New Zealand Māori Council, Waikato River tribes and Waikaremoana iwi Ngāti Ruapani are challenging the sale process.
Council Deputy Chair Rahui Katene says at yesterday’s sessions the claimants made it clear to the five judges that there needs to be a protection mechanism in place, and it’s not good enough for the Crown to say it will take care of it.
“We all know that it’s been 170 years and they haven’t taken care of it. In fact, one of the judges made the point yesterday that at one stage the crown had enacted said that Māori owned geothermal resources. They’ve gone back on that. Now they’re saying Māori can’t own any water or geothermal resources and that water ownership is not part of the redress package.”
Rahui Katene says the Māori Council’s lawyer, Colin Carruthers, stressed that any redress package that gave claimants money but not mana over the resource was unacceptable.
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