‘No tribal authority’ for forestry deal

Press, 22 July 1989, Page 2

‘No tribal authority’ for forestry deal

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

No Maori representatives have the authority to do a deal with the Government to sell State forest assets, says Mr Winston Peters, National’s Maori Affairs spokesman. He said the agreement between the Government and Maoridom was in utter opposition to what most New Zealanders — Maori and non-Maori — actually wanted. These State forest assets were the heritage passed on by previous generations of taxpayers and should not pass from taxpayer control, Mr Peters said. Their sale illustrated

perfectly what was wrong with the Government’s policy on Maori affairs.

The Government was intent on devolving effective power and decisionmaking to the Maori tribal system, he said, but it was not tribal representatives who had done the deal with the Government.

Mr Peters doubted that some tribes would accept the settlement, not only because they did not like it but because it had been signed by people who did not represent them. The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Mrs Helen Hughes, said the conditions to be attached to the

sale documents required clarification.

It was not clear who would administer the forest lands and who would enforce the conditions in the forest sale agreements, she said. New Zealanders who had invested their taxes in forestry had a right to. insist that the land was left in as good or better condition than it was now.

The Opposition’s environmental spokesman, Mr Rob Storey, said the Government’s intention to sell the Crown’s forestry assets without adequate covenants for replanting would be an environmental disaster.