It was only a matter of time before claimants would try to take action against the government alleging the treaty settlement process is flawed, divides tribes, and causes fighting within tribes.
Wellington-based lawyer Moana Sinclair visited Taranaki this week to offer claimants the opportunity to support a class action lawsuit against the Crown that includes claims from Rangitane o Manawatu and Deirdre Nehua, the widow of far-left activist Syd Jackson. Sinclair said five Taranaki sub-tribes had expressed interest in supporting the lawsuit.
Hori Manuirirangi, of South Taranaki group Ngati Tu, said they would be joining the class action lawsuit because:
Government forced Ngaruahine to create a new body to receive its $67.5 million treaty settlement.That body did not represent all hapu. The process is usurping the mana of our marae and of our hapu. They are making iwi elect a body that doesn't actually represent everyone. They will be signing with the wrong group.Sinclair said such feelings were echoed across the country and the Crown's handling of the Treaty of Waitangi settlements forced tribes into a position where they had processes imposed on them. She described it as a growing national, multi-tribal Maori voice which is saying the treaty settlement process is unjust.
Sinclair said Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia had intervened on Treaty settlements in Manawatu because members of the tribe complained that the Crown was not talking to the right people.
In June this year Glen Skipper, the chairman of the Ngati Tawhirikura sub-tribe of Te Atiawa, urged the tribe to vote against the creation of the new body, Te Kotahitanga o Te Atiawa Trust, that would receive and control the $87-million promised to the tribe. He was ignored and the trust was created.
I heard a similar complaint at the select committee hearing of the Treelords settlement at Wairakei in 2007. Some claimants told the select committee that the mandate to receive settlement proceeds had gone to people unknown to the tribe.
Meanwhile, a Far North claimant has challenged the way the Government reaches treaty settlements, saying they're achieved by breaching the Treaty of Waitangi. (2)
Te Kawehau Hoskins, of Ngati Hau hapu, has filed evidence as part of the Wai 1040 Northland case, known as Te Paparahi o Te Raki regional inquiry, made up of 390 claims, arguing that the settlement process doesn't reflect a treaty based approach because it's dictated by the Crown without consultation or involvement of Maori.
Suggesting the Government is then both judge and jury of its own process, Dr Hoskins says the settlement process should instead be guided by the treaty and ensure a partnership approach.
Looks like in his haste to get the job done, Treaty Negotiations Minister Christopher Finlayson is facing sharper opposition from disaffected claimants than from the disaffected excluded silent majority.
Sources
Treaty settlements 'dividing iwi', http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9392712/Treaty-settlements-dividing-iwi
2. Treaty settlement process flawed - claimant, Radio NZ, November 15, 2013. http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/227871/treaty-settlement-process-flawed-claimant
7 comments:
It's the old "you did the deal with the wrong people" trick that Maori have used time and again to fleece more and more money from gullible NZ governments.
Typical, maori will never be satisfied. End this travesty now.
Enough is enough, remove all race-based positions in parliament and local government, remove all current race-based privileges and doubled-up social services, schools etc - it is time to move forward
Enough is Enough
I think that John Key and the other MPs should get life in prison for not having put a stop to all of this kind of ugly dishonesty by now. They are traitors to NZ. They are allowing - actually encouraging - race-separatism such as this destroy our country!
Just read Ian Wishart,s ' The Great Divide ' book 2012 and it is clear and concise how it really is and can be actioned to sort these fraud so called Maori out.
When Lieu. Gvnr Hobson of N.S.W., Australia signed off the last signatory to the Treaty his superior, Gvnr. Gipps of N.S.W., proclaimed the borders of N.S.W. be extended to cover all of the islands of NZ and NZ to be a dependency of his state governed under English law.
This severed all Maori ambitions of continued sovereignty and unbroken ownership to foreshore and seabed, water, radio spectrum, partnership, fish etc.
Just revealed after 173 years of darkness is Queen Victoria's Royal Charter of 16-11-1840, our true founding document and first constitution which split NZ from N.S.W., saw Hobson promoted to be our Governor, authorised our Governance, English law and enabled our own flag.
Common sense will prevail in that Queen Victoria did not have the power or authority to grant exclusive privilege to anyone under English law and Magna Carta and none were.
There cannot be a breach of the Treaty, only a breach of the laws of England and Maori claims should be heard in Her Majesties Courts of Law where unlike the Waitangi Tribunal oath is taken; only authentic, documented evidence is permissible and full cross examination allowed.
This is what the Treaty has been proven to promise in "Twisting the Treaty", by John Robinson, Bruce Moon , David Round, Mike Butler, Hugh Barr & Peter Creswell.
Please do not blame Maoris, they would have found any alleged fraud impossible without Governments (plural) and U.N. assistance and this is what has made all possible.
Look deeper.
G.Graham
Can we not start raising funds in order to challenge the current situation with regard to the so called partnership scam in the courts or does it have to be done via politicians ? How many times have maori with clever lawyers taken us for a ride.
The Crown continues to breach the Treaty of Waitangi by recognising hapu today whom the Crown negotiated with 164 years ago to illegally purchase other iwi and hapu lands without the original owners' knowledge or consent. This seems to have been the same documented story around New Zealand of Colonial Crown land processes to acquire Maori land.
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