March 28, 2023
Sorry but not sorry as Wairarapa claims halted
Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister Andrew Little has delivered the Crown apology to Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua for historic breaches of Te Tiriti of Waitangi – but one group caught up in the claim says a new breach has been created.
Mr Little told several hundred people at Queen Elizabeth Park in Masterton the settlement marks the first step of many more in a renewed partnership between Ngāti Kahungunu and the Crown.
The apology covered the forced cession of tens of thousands of acres of land at Maungaroa in 1845, as well as the failure to act in good faith during rapid and extensive land purchases throughout the 1850s, and in later public works takings.
The Crown also failed to honour the gifting of Wairarapa Moana with the promised reserves.
But the Wairarapa Moana Incorporation says the settlement quashes its claim for land at Pouākani in the central North Island which was given as a reserve in compensation for taking Lake Wairarapa and then taken again to build the Maraetai hydropower station.
The Supreme Court had directed that the Waitangi Tribunal should consider whether that land should be returned to Wairarapa Moana.
Incorporation chair Kingi Smiler says it’s seeking a declaratory judgement from the High Court, that the Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-ā-Rua Claims Settlement 2022 is inconsistent with section 27(3) of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Section 27(3) of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 affirms and protects the right of every person to bring civil proceedings against the Crown and to have those proceedings heard, according to law.