August 28, 2020
1080 payment slur angers hapū leader
A Te Whānau a Apanui hapū leader is slamming an anti-1080 activist who has accused the iwi of trading money for poison drops.
Tim Benseman has filed an Official Information Act with the Department of Conservation alleging hapū were to get $2 million each out of the $34 million Raukūmara Pae Maunga Restoration Project, and asking how that figure was negotiated.
Raukōkore hapū chair Willie Te Aho says the project is a partnership between each of Te Whānau a Apanui, Ngāti Porou and the crown, and all the money was going into protecting the ngahere.
"The pigs, the deer, the possums, they hammer our native fauna and flora and we want to do something about that. How we do that is still being worked through with those three partners so Tim Benseman is a liar. I've challenged him to take me to court if he thinks I'm defaming him but the reality is he is a racist lying weasel," Mr Te Aho says.
Tim Benseman has made a large number of requests for information about 1080 drops, and currently has requests in for any correspondence Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Ministry head Ashley Bloomfield may have had with former Microsoft head Bill Gates, who is a scare figure among anti-vaccination activists.
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