May 04, 2015
Te Hiku tribes to challenge Statoil on home ground
A group from the far north is off to even further north take opposition to deep sea oil drilling back to its source.
Mike Smith says far north iwi have been invited to address the annual parliament of the Saami, Norway’s indigenous minority, about what Norwegian-owned Statoil is doing off their coast.
He has letters from Ngati Kuri and Ngati Kahu, and he will be accompanied by Te Rarawa kaumatua Sonny Harrison.
They will also try to talk to the Statoil annual meeting.
"We’ve got speaker's rights at the AGM and we will be addressing the shareholders of the company to tell them they're in for a bit of a fight down here. They better have a pretty strong war chest. They're likely to lose money down this part of the world. So we just want to give the investors a heads up that it's not a very good investment down here in the South Pacific. They're in for a lot of trouble," Mr Mike says.
He says Te Ahipara Komiti Takutaimoana, which handles maritime issues on behalf of Te Rarawa, is preparing a Waitangi Tribunal claim over the crown’s failure to seek the prior and informed consent of Maori tribes before it issued deep sea oil drilling permits.
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