February 06, 2014
Key dangles cash carrot before divided Ngapuhi
The Prime Minister has dangled an advance on settlement before Ngapuhi, but the Northland iwi is still divided over who should handle it.
John Key used his Prime Minister’s breakfast at Waitangi yesterday to hint at what he hopes will be the game changer to get the 100,000 strong iwi to the negotiating table.
Indications are the advance could be as much as $40 million from a settlement of about $200 million, but Ngapuhi Runanga chair Sonny Tau says the total needs to top half a billion dollars.
Rudy Taylor from Te Kotahitanga o Nga Hapu o Ngapuhi says the Government is misreading the situation, and throwing money at the runanga won’t help.
"I think John Key needs to ask himself what is it that Ngapuhi is having its little fight over in terms of wanting to settle, and there is that whole thing about the hapu having the mandate in terms of their tupuna that actually signed off as their rightful ownership in their rohe so I can’t see Te Runanga a iwi o Ngapuhi having a tupuna that signed off when they don’t own the land," he says.
Rudy Taylor says the Waitangi Day commemoration wasn’t the right place to have an announcement about the Ngapuhi mandate.
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