July 23, 2015
Te Ohu Kaimoana fighting for survival
Te Ohu Kaimoana has told MPs its continuing survival as a national representative body representing Maori fisheries interests could lie in it being able to live off the funds it has built up.
The Maori fisheries settlement trust is trying to manage the fall out of a review by Wellington barrister Tim Castle that called for the trust to be wound up and its assets distributed to iwi.
Iwi voted not to go that far, but they did vote to grab for themselves the income shares in Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd that have funded activities for the past decade.
Chair Matiu Rei told the Maori Affairs Select Committee the trust will consult with iwi over the next year on new arrangements.
He says funding options include a mandatory levy that might be politically hard to sell, a voluntary levy that could be hard to collect, or an endowment fund using the cash that Te Ohu Kaimoana has built up.
It also needs to develop a new system to allow iwi to elect directors to Te Ohu Kaimoana and Aotearoa Fisheries that will not shut out the smaller iwi.
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