June 08, 2023
Waikato Tainui puts dibs on airport shares
Waikato Tainui leader Tukoroirangi Morgan says the Government should buy Auckland Council’s airport shares and give them to the iwi to settle its unresolved WAI 30 claim.
The council is today debating Mayor Wayne Brown’s first budget, where he is offering a trade off between settling the shares to pay down debt or cutting social and arts programmes.
Mr Morgan says the iwi has a long-standing claim to the underlying land, which its negotiators have suggested could be settled with shares.
“Shareholders should be very mindful that the land in and around the airport is subject to a treaty claim. Sure there is going to be some uncertainty – treaty claims always give rise to public uncertainty. But for us, there has never been any uncertainty. The fact of the matter is those lands are ours,” he says.
Mr Morgan says most of the available crown assets in Tamaki Makaurau have already gone to the 19 settled iwi, so the crown would have to dig deep to compensate the unsettled claims.