Crown fails to heed Tribunal

Press, 7 December 1988, Page 36

Crown fails to heed Tribunal

The Crown when not acting on Waitangi Tribunal advice, had failed to demonstrate that alternatives would provide an equal or approved result, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Mrs Helen Hughes said. She presented an apprai sal of the Crown’s response to Waitangi Tribunal recommendeations on Motunui, Kaituna, Manukau, Te Reo Maori, Waiheke, Orakei and Muriwhenua claims, in a report for Parliament. In the 1983 Motunui claim the tribunal found that the traditional fishing grounds of Te Atiawa tribe had been polluted and would probably be further polluted.

The tribunal recommended that the Motunui outfall should not be built, the present Waitara outfall should be upgraded and legislation amended to protect Maori fishing rights.

The Motunui outfall was not built. But the Commissioner found that the Waitara reefs were continually polluted and legislation had not been amended. In the Kaituna claim the tribunal found that plans to re-route Rotorua sewage by pipeline to the Kaituna River would prejudicially affect the Ngati Pikiao tribespeople. Although funding had been approved it had yet to be discharged. Most of the recommendations relating to legislation had not been implemented, said the commissioner. The tribunal found that the tribes of Manakau Harbour had been severely prejudiced through compulsory land and water acquisitions, pollution and denial of traditional access rights.

The Commissioner found that three years after recommendations

had been made to redress the problem through Crown legislation and policy there had been no “real change at flaxroot level.”

The Crown had partially implemented recommendations regarding the protection of the Maori language. The recommendations relating to education and bilingualism in the State Services had not been implemented. "In the absence of other evidence it has been assumed that these recommendations have been rejected by the Crown.”

Nearly 18 months after the tribunal had recommended the return of Waiheke lands to the Ngati Paoa tribe, the Crown had yet to respond. The $5OOO which was to have been automatically paid to the tribe had been paid 15 months after the recommendation. The tribunal’s recommendation for the return of certain Orakei lands and an endowment for the Ngati Whatua tribe had almost all been accepted by the Crown following active pursuing of the issue by the Treaty Issues Unit.

In the Muriwhenua claim the tribunal found that the treaty guaranteed ownership of fisheries to the Maori in the same way as land. The Crown response to the interim report on the transfer of Crown land to State Owned Enterprises prompted the successful landmark Maori Council case before the Court of Appeal. The Crown ignored two tribunal memorandums on the I.T.Q. (Individually Transferable Quota) fishing system.

The Crown was forced to negotiate with the Maori after facing restraining orders issued

against the system by the High Court. The Maori Fisheries Bill introduced in September had exceeded the matters under negotiation by restricting Maori access to the tribunal and quota allocations and introducing freshwater fisheries, the report said. "A recent proposal by the Crown suggested that Maori rights of access to Courts and tribunal would be retained. But the total Maori quota share would be reduced from 50 per cent to 10 per cent.”

The Commissioner recommended that legislative amendments should be addressed through the Town and Country Planning Act (1977) and Water and Soil Conservation Act (1967). There was a need for a joint environmental policy to be established. “A message conveyed to me by Maori people for the management of natural and physical resources has been “respect and protect what is there, restore what has been lost.”

“The tribunal has amply demonstrated examples of Crown actions which have denied Maori people access to sufficient natural and physical resources.

“Environmental management with a common future requires Pakeha and Maori to listen and learn from each other.”

There was currently deep distrust among Maori people about the way natural and physical resources had been managed by the Crown for 148 years.

"It will be deeds, not mere talk, which demonstrates whether the Crown-Pakeha side should now be trusted and respected,” the Commissioner said.