Waitangi Trib. membership soon to be 16

Press, 23 March 1988, Page 2

Waitangi Trib. membership soon to be 16

Political reporter J I A Maori (majority on the Waitangi Tribunal will cease to be a requirement when legislation to ease its backlog of 150 claims is? passed later this year. '■ j

i Four of the tribunal’s I seven members must now be Maori, a requirement i that has drawn Opposition 1 criticism. But the Minister off ■ Maori Affairs, Mr Wetere, said yesterday that this ! requirement would end as ■ the number sitting on the tribunal increased from, seven to 16 members. Instead, the membership would have to ‘’reflect the partnership of the two parties to the; Treaty of Waitangi.” \ The raft of changes an-| - nounced yesterday was needed to deal with the: 150 claims waiting to be: : heard, and others ex-j pected to be lodged after; the Treaty of Waitangi: (State Enterprises) Bill; was passed, said Mrj Wetere. The. changes would allow the tribunal chairman; to appoint deputy chair-j men to hear particular

cases. This ; would allow the tribunal To sit in divisions. : Xi Two of the 16 members would be full-time appointments, and ’ there would no longer be deputy members. | Between three , and seven members I would hear each claimi Parttime members would continue to be drawn from a pool of qualified i people with specialist skills or tribal mana. Questions over tribal boundaries could be referred to the Maori Appellate Court for a binding decision. This would avoid delays in the work of the tribunal, and use the court’s: expertise in such claims. , “I see these proposals as a sensible; move to reduce the workload and stress upon the existing tribunal,” said Mr Wetere. The initially cautious

(i ' [ ■ Approach to the tribunal’s constitution was correct, but there was now a( need (for. a more efficient dispatch of business, The Treaty of Waitangi Amendment Bill would be introduced later this year. The Opposition said that the changes. to the tribunal did not go far enough, although the Opposition spokesman \on justice, Mr Paul East, has welcomed the ending' of the Maori majority requirement, ■ The Opposition spokesman on Maori affairs, Mr Winston Peters, said the changes did not address the real issues of concern. These included the ability of the tribunal tto make legally binding decisions with no right of appeal. In spite of the changes there would still be a delay of up to 40 years in ,'some cases.