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A leading member of the Iwi Chairs Forum says a decision to get Land Information New Zealand to manage the Office of Treaty Settlements’ land bank is a missed opportunity.
The iwi leaders have been pushing for more than two years to be allowed to manage the land bank, which consists of about 950 properties in areas where settlements are still to be concluded.
Haami Piripi from Te Rarawa says they wanted to allow iwi to access the properties before the settlement, rather than have them lie idle and deteriorating.
"The fact that the government has now said it doesn't want to do that indicates to us as iwi leaders that it is inflexible around that issue and it is not as concerned as we are about our claimant communities prior to achieving a settlement, and in many ways it continues the grievance," he says.
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