November 01, 2017
Tribunal torpedoes Ngatiwai mandate
Prospects for a quick settlement with Northland iwi Ngatiwai have gone up in smoke with the Waitangi Tribunal finding the Crown breached the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi when it recognised the mandate of the Ngatiwai Trust Board to enter into negotiations.
The mandate was challenged by hapu and whanau who said they had not consented to being represented by the board.
In a report released yesterday, the tribunal said when the mandate was recognised in October 2015, the process of determining who should be included was unsatisfactory and incomplete.
That’s because of the lack of clear and robust Crown policy for dealing with the range of interests that need to be accounted for in Treaty settlement mandates.
The board was not appropriately structured to represent the hapu named in the mandate, whose claims would be negotiated, settlement and extinguished without their consent, and there were no mechanisms for hapu to either consent to or withdraw from the mandate.
The tribunal recommended mediation or facilitated discussions to find a way around the problem, including making changes in the deed of mandate which the hapu must approve.
The report followed the same line of reasoning in its September 2015 report that derailed the Ngapuhi claim negotiations.
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