September 19, 2019
Many questions as Government asked to solve Ihumātao tangle
A spokesperson for the Māori king says the crown buying the land at Ihumātao could be the way to resolve the stand off over development of a special housing area.
Kiingi Tuheitia yesterday announced he had secured a consensus among mana whenua that the land now owned by Fletcher Residential should be returned to them so they can make decisions about its future, but his statement included no details about how that could be achieved.
Spokesperson Rahui Papa told Radio Waatea host Claudette Hauiti none of the options being considered include mana whenua buying the land back.
He said a great option would be a crown purchase.
"You’ve had successive Governments bailing out finance companies in the past for way way more money than what we’re talking about here so where there’s a will there is a way and that may be an option but it still needs to be fleshed out because what we don’t want to do is move ourselves into a place where we’re further alienated from the land," Mr Papa said.
He said mana whenua still hold polarised views about how the land should be used, ranging from housing to heritage orders to reserves.
Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters welcomed what progress had been made but appeared to rule out any crown purchase, saying that so far he had not seen the extraordinarily high benchmark needed for the Government to get involved.
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