Waitangi Tribunal recommends Orakei Agreement in Principle be put on hold
by Don Wackrow Wackrow Williams & Davies
In June 2007 the Waitangi Tribunal issued “The Tamaki Makaurau Settlement Process Report.”
This report followed an urgent hearing before 3 Tribunal members after an application had been made by claimants from some of the other iwi and hapu groups with interests in Greater Auckland.
As part of their claims the claimants claimed interests within our rohe.
This Report was to do with settlement processes.
As the Waitangi Tribunal acknowledged “we are not inquiring into whether or not the Crowns assessment of Ngati Whatua o Orakei’s claims in Tamaki Makaurau is correct. We are in no position to express an opinion on that question because we have not conducted an historical inquiry.”
The inquiry and the Report focused especially on how the Crown dealt with the hapu and iwi other than Ngati Whatua o Orakei.
Ngati Whatua o Orakei did have the opportunity of participating in the inquiry by filing evidence and making submissions but was not involved in the same manner and to the same extent as the claimants before the Tribunal or the Crown.
For example the Tribunal closely controlled cross examination times.
- The claimants were granted 8 ½ hours to cross examine Ngati Whatua o Orakei and Crown witnesses.
- The Tribunal spent 30 minutes cross examining Ngati Whatua o Orakei witnesses and 2 ½ hours on the Crown’s witness.
- The Crown was allowed a little under 80 minutes in total to cross examine 11 of the claimants witnesses.
- Ngati Whatua o Orakei was allowed 10 minutes in total to cross examine only 1 witness.
This Urgent Hearing Waitangi Tribunal process, where the settling group sits off a little to one side, must arise because the claims are claims against the Crown in regard to the negotiations process engaged in by the Crown.
The Waitangi Tribunal governs its own processes. It is not a Court or an ordinary type of Tribunal. It is a permanent Commission of Inquiry which makes recommendations to the Crown.
The Report was highly critical of the Office of Treaty Settlements processes so far as the other hapu and iwi were concerned.
It criticised the amount and type of Crown interaction with those other groups.
Its main recommendation was that our Agreement in Principle should be put on hold until such time as the other groups have negotiated their own agreements or a point had been reached where it was evident that best endeavours notwithstanding, such agreements in principle were not possible.
At the time of this posting, almost 18 months have passed since those June 2007 recommendations.
Of course we wish other iwi with interests in Greater Auckland to have their settlements just as soon as possible. That said, we have been putting in the hard yards on our negotiations for many years.
We think it unfair if our settlement was held up unduly or indefinitely.
Download The Tamaki Makaurau Settlement Process Report here
2.7MB PDF file