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November 24, 2013
A Maori spectrum claimant says the Government is now determined to drive the claims into the ground.
Waatea Team
Posted On November 24, 2013
The last remaining block of 4G spectrum goes up for auction tomorrow, with no allowance made for Maori interests.
That’s in contrast to the 3G auction more than a decade ago, when Maori were given the right to buy a quarter of the available spectrum.
Piripi Walker from Nga Kaiwhakapumau I te Reo, the Wellington Maori language board, says a 1999 Waitangi Tribunal finding that spectrum was a taonga, and a Privy Council decision in the claimants’ favour, are being overruled.
He says the claimants can’t fight it in the courts, and the tribunal process has fallen short because its findings aren’t binding.
"Here’s the iwi watching their rights being sold to the most powerful and the wealthiest telecommunications companies in the world. We tried the tribunal route and the tribunal couldn’t bring itself to give an urgency hearing this year; underresourced, understaffed and signalled by the Government that it was a complete waste of time, the tribunal, in my view, lost its nerve," Mr Walker says.
Copyright © 2013, UMA Broadcasting Ltd
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