August 06, 2019
Bid to defuse Ihumātao tension
Police deputy commissioner Wally Haumaha visited Ihumātao last night in a bid to defuse rising tensions between police and protesters.
After a relatively quiet week, some in the protest group started testing the police lines on Sunday, leading to a rapid escalation in the number of police keeping the crowd off the farmland earmarked for development.
An incident on Monday night involving SOUL leader Pania Newton led to hundreds of supporters flocking to the site in response to a call on social media.
Labour Maori caucus co-chair Willie Jackson says deputy commissioner Haumaha briefed Maori MPs yesterday morning that there seemed to be a clear strategy by the protest group to reoccupy.
"The other side of this was there was not meant to be any movement from either side until they got through their negotiations over the next couple of days, so let's just hope they can get through those negotiations and work things out. I'm just pleased thank goodness there was no violence," Mr Jackson says.
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