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TUHOE & TE UREWERA NATIONAL PARK

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« on: May 19, 2010, 11:20:28 pm »


Plan reveals control option for Te Urewera Park

By CLAIRE TREVETT and YVONNE TAHANA - The New Zealand Herald | 4:00AM - Wednesday, May 19, 2010

A couple of horses enjoy a stroll down a country road with the Ureweras as a backdrop. — Photo: Alan Gibson.
A couple of horses enjoy a stroll down a country road with the Ureweras as a backdrop.
 — Photo: Alan Gibson.


The scuttled Tuhoe settlement included a $120 million offer in which the Crown retained an option to take full management control of Te Urewera National Park if ownership was vested in the tribe.

It also featured the formation of a joint Crown/iwi park board, based on past co-governance models.

Nearly every government ministry could have been invited to work with Tuhoe, so that it could deliver social services in the future, according to a confidential and well-developed settlement package considered by a Cabinet committee in March.

Prime Minister John Key last week ruled out iwi ownership, saying it was unacceptable to the Government.

Both groups have been working towards an agreement in principle for two years, and Cabinet ministers were told that under the package, management could revert solely to the Crown as it retained a reversionary interest to allow it to temporarily regain full management control of Te Urewera in defined circumstances.

In terms of the $120 million the Government was prepared to offer, $66 million would be taken as cash. The remaining $54 million had already been paid from the tribe's interest in the multi-iwi Central North Island Forests or Treelords deal in 2008.

The other major negotiation plank is the tribe's push for mana motuhake, a form of self-government under which it would be responsible for providing government services, the package committed the Government to exploring the devolution of social services over a 30-year period.

On Monday, Mr Key acknowledged vesting of ownership was included in the paper which went through the Cabinet committee. However, he said, it was simply an option and was included by the negotiating team because it was the only remaining way to deal with the national park after Tuhoe rejected all other proposals.

Any such proposal would not form part of the official offer until the Cabinet approved it, which had never happened because he had withdrawn it before that stage.

Yesterday, Maori Party MP Hone Harawira questioned Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson after Mr Key said his veto stemmed from advice that at least three other iwi could make similar claims to national parks if Tuhoe's transfer went through.

Mr Finlayson said some of those iwi, which included Tuwharetoa, Taranaki, Whanganui and Ngai Tahu, had raised the matter informally with him.

Asked by Labour MP Shane Jones whether misleading and mocking Tuhoe was part of good faith negotiating, Mr Finlayson said no Crown minister had done so.

Mr Key faced questioning from Labour leader Phil Goff. He denied the handover of ownership was the "preferred option" passed by the Treaty Negotiations Committee and said he had no recollection of telling Tuhoe negotiator Tamati Kruger that such a deal was "complex but workable".


______________________________________

THE SETTLEMENT

  • Cash: $66 million.

  • Plus: extra already given: $54 million.

  • Land: 200,000ha Te Urewera National Park.

  • Politics: 30-year plan for limited self government.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/te-urewera-national-park/news/article.cfm?l_id=500533&objectid=10645948



Incentives are there for talks to resume

By YVONNE TAHANA - The New Zealand Herald | 4:00AM - Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Te Urewera National Park. — Photo: Alan Gibson.
Te Urewera National Park. — Photo: Alan Gibson.

The state of negotiations between the Government and Ngai Tuhoe is messy but not yet at the point of no return.

Prime Minister John Key has said that tribal ownership is a no-go area, pitting him against the tribe which says the deed to Te Urewera National Park is a bottom line in any settlement.

Belligerence on both sides could leave it dead in the water. But in terms of Maori issues the Government has shown it can think on its feet, and the tribe isn't ready to terminate discussions just yet.

Attorney-General Christopher Finlayson's work on repeal of the foreshore and seabed law is a clear example of fresh thinking about a hugely divisive issue.

The Government's preferred option if repeal did occur was that no single body would own the wet area at the beach. Currently the Crown owns it.

That proposal is a significant departure from the previous Government's position and it moved the public debate forward in an unexpected direction.

At his post-Cabinet press conference on Monday Mr Key reiterated that a full vesting of Te Urewera National Park in Tuhoe wasn't possible unless there was "another leg to that transaction".

So the question should turn to ... what could both the Government and Tuhoe live with, in terms of exploring what a new form of ownership might look like?

If the Crown can rethink options in terms of the foreshore and seabed repeal there's no reason ownership can't be redefined in another way here.

The cost of not sorting this is high for Tuhoe.

Getting iwi members to mandate a deal is a fraught enough process — if this attempt fails they will have only to look down the road to Opotiki and their tribal neighbours for an example of where they don't want to be.

Whakatohea rejected a Crown offer in the mid-90s and since then has been able to gain no internal traction on a path to settlement.

While Tuhoe says it is willing to walk away from the settlement, to do so risks important gains around mana motuhake or self-government.

On the Government's ledger, the cost of Treaty negotiations can run into the millions — repeating the process with another Tuhoe group is wasteful and it isn't something the Crown Forestry Rental Trust, which foots the lion's share of the cost, is likely to be happy about.

When negotiators on both sides re-engage, they are likely to be much quieter about it.

If Mr Key and various Cabinet ministers were twitchy about this impasse then you can bet they'll be much more silent about future discussions.


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10645946&pnum=0
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