September 23, 2015
Tuhoronuku split boosts hapu confidence
Te Kotahitanga o Nga Hapu o Ngapuhi Nui Tonu has picked a working party to come up with alternatives to the government-recognised claim negotiation body Tuhoronuku.
Co-chair Rudy Taylor says a hui at Mangamuka yesterday considered responses from the various Ngapuhi taiwhenua to a Waitangi Tribunal report criticising the way the crown approved Tuhoronuku’s mandate.
He says the recent Tuhoronuku election, where former chair Sonny Tau withdrew from the poll at the last moment and two of his supporters replaced the interim chair and deputy on a close vote, doesn’t inspire confidence in the crown’s preferred partner.
"So there’s a split in their camp, two people that thought they were going to be the chair and the vice chair and they got rolled and now we've got Mr Hone Sadler and Mr Kara George. So you can't very well jump into a camp where they're split. But I think we've got a strong working group that can put things together and go back to their taiwhenua and hopefully get a better response then what we're hearing from Tuhoronuku," he says.
Rudy Taylor says there is a lot of anger in some hapu about the way people were picked to speak for them on Tuhoronuku.
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