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The co-chair of Te Kotahitanga o Ngā Hapu o Ngāpuhi says the suggestion by Ngāpuhi Rūnanga chair that the tribe should aim for a $1.5 billion settlement is a bid to shore up support for negotiating body Tuhoronuku.
Rudy Taylor says the immediate focus needs to be on the talks he and co-chair Pita Tipene are in with Mr Tau, Tuhoronuku chair Hone Sadler and Treaty of Waitangi Minister Andrew Little about how settlement negotiaitons can be restarted.
He says it's not the time to talk about the settlement quantum, especially such an unrealistic number.
"If you look at the economy where things have gone with the government you have the nurses on strike, bus drivers are going on strike, and then we come over the top with this $1.5 billion – (Te Kotahitanga) is realistic about how we see things moving forward and in no way have we given anybody like Tūhoronuku a mandate to think they are going to take the claims over and run them this way like $1.5 billion," Mr Taylor says.
He says so far in the historical process settlement total have stuck closely to the guidelines set in the fiscal envelope of the early 1990s.
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