Groups want Waitangi claims heard again

Press, 16 July 1986, Page 44

Groups want Waitangi claims heard again

PA Wellington Two sets of claimants to the Waitangi Tribunal are unhappy about the way the tribunal’s findings have been treated and want their cases reopened. Requests for the rehearing concern two important claims — they are also understood to be the first request for a rehearing that the tribunal has received.

They concern the Manukau claim brought by South Auckland Maoris last year and the Maori language claim brought by the Wellington Maori Language Board (Nga Kaiwhakapumau I Te Reo) and also heard last year.

The Justice Department’s tribunals division received a request last month from Ngati Te Ata Trust at Waiuku for an immediate rehearing of the slurry pipeline and acquisition of Maori land aspects of the Manukau claim.

The claim was the most wide-ranging one the tribunal has had to consider and constitutes several; claims, the tribunal

says in its report.

The claim was about despoliation of Manukau Harbour and loss of certain surrounding lands of the Manukau tribes.

"More potently underlying this claim is the enormous sense of grievance, injustice and outrage that continues to haunt the Manukau Maori and bedevil the prospect of harmony in greater Auckland,” the tribunal says in its report. In their claim, the Maori claimants complained among other things about an IBkm-long underground slurry pipeline that was to convey ironsand concentrate to Glenbrook from a mine at Maioro using water from the Waikato that was to be clarified and then discharged into the Manukau.

In its decision on this question, the tribunal says it declined the recommendation sought by the claimants that the pipeline not proceed on the grounds that the matter was one that “ought reasonably to admit- of a compromise agreement.”

But, the Ngati Te Ata Trust says, the

pipeline is commissioned to start, “and all efforts to protect our concerns as promised in the Treaty of Waitangi have been completely ignored.”

“The fact of the matter is that the slurry pipeline is commissioned to start with no other method of disposal sought other than to discharge into Manukau Harbour, and the Forest Service will return the land to tangata whenua (the people of the land) but with conditions attached,” it said. “We reiterate that we seek an urgent rehearing on the matters outlined above,” it said.

On a separate matter, the Maori Language Board, which brought the Maori language hearing to the tribunal late last year resulting in a finding in its favour, wants the tribunal to re-open its case.

The board is upset that the Government apparently failed to take notice of the tribunal’s findings on the language claim before introducing the Maori Language Bill to Parliament The board believes the bill is inadequate and

does not go far enough toward legislating for recommendations contained in the tribunal report. It is not yet clear whether either of the requests for rehearings will be accepted by the tribunal which has been defunct since the passing of the Treaty of Waitangi Amendment Bill late last year.

The hotly debated bill provided for establishment of a revamped, larger tribunal of six members and deputies with research assistants and jurisdiction back to the signing of the treaty in 1840.

The announcement of new tribunal members has been expected from the Minister of Maori Affairs, Mr Wetere, for several months.

The Ngati Te Ata request has been referred to the tribunal chairman, Mr Edward Durie, who is by statute Chief Judge of the Maori Land Court. A large backlog of claims that had been accepted and await hearing is expected to take precedence over any new claims the new tribunal m'&z take.