A judicial review has found demolition of a network of huts in Te urewera was unlawful.
Twenty-nine huts were burned down in 2022 at the direction of Tūhoe's post settlement entity Te Uru Taumatua following a decision by Te Urewera Board to decommission Department of Conservation (DOC) infrastructure within Te Urewera.
The move was supported by the director-general of DOC.
Wharenui Tuna of Tūhoe (Te Whakatane hapū) obtained an interim injunction to prevent the destruction of further huts in November 2022.
A further 10 huts were burned down following the interim injunction. Te Uru Taumatua denied responsibility and police were investigating.
Now, the High Court has found the DOC director-general, Te Uru Taumatua and Te Urewera Board acted contrary to Te Urewera Act in allowing the huts to be demolished.
So what consequences will the Trust Board and DOC face for their illegal destruction of 29 or 39 huts?
The court also found Te Uru Taumatua acted unlawfully by demolishing the huts without having in place an annual operational plan, and that Te Uru Taumatua and the director-general acted unlawfully by failing to prepare an annual operational plan for the past two years, as required by law.
The decision also said the board and DOC acted unlawfully “by purporting to adopt a retrospective annual operational plan authorising the huts' demolition”.
The court described this as “a striking example of reviewable error” on behalf of the director-general.
So DOC tried to retrospectively cover up what happened. Shocking.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.
10 comments:
This fiasco was entirely predictable. The Loopy Left set in Wellington have robbed many of safe passage in Urewera. Strip the idiots like Kruger of all authority and return to sanity immediately. Local hunters, fishermen, trampers etc are apoplectic over this triumph of shamanism over sensibility & fairness.
CO GOVERNANCE has no consequences to the non paying/no fault Maori side, but plenty for the all fault taxpayer side. Good deal eh.
So when is the DOC director -general going to resign, or better stilll, be sacked for the unlawful(criminal) act?
A classic case of why co-governance isn't appropriate and as for, Penny Nelson, the DG of DoC, she should be gone by lunchtime - along with those in her 'senior management team' that supported this disgraceful act.
Oh, but that's right, they all GET PAID the BIG BUCKS for taking NO RESPONSIBILITY! There's yet another swamp that needs draining!
Making personal enquiries to DOC Napier last week as to when the Great Walk around Lake Waikeremoana would be open they said they still had no idea, but they'd call the Tuhoe and see what they were going to do.
They called back and advised it might, might be open in the second week in January. But it wasn't definite. So another summer holidays comes and goes without parents being able to use this walking track with their kids.
That's assuming they haven't burn't these huts down too.
Another sign of Maori interpretation of Co-governance
What has happened in the Urewera forest, is not a "new thing", it 'was signaled by Maori many year ago, to the extent that they stated "when the land was returned to them, it would be "literally closed to Pakeha".
Go visit Ruatoria, and gage the sentiment. Oh just do not expect to drink to drink in the pub.
What's the bet they want state of the art brand spanking new 'lodges' paid for by ......drum role.....the taxpayer. and that's why they trashed the 39
Yep, this headline news on TVNZ and Newshub on the same night a few days ago, with comments from experts.
When the pests get totally out of control maori will demand tens of millions for them to spend on a te ao/tikanga fix of the problem. Part of the concession they made for living on benefits in paradise whilst doing nothing much and far from the threat of work, was that they had to tolerate a few visitors. This inconvenient intrusion into thir lives is now largely countered. They seemed to have ideas of commercial guided tours but as counter maori sentiment hardens the numbers willing to tolerate days of relentless pro maori propoganda and trite history will become very limited.
Inconveniencing and sticking it to colonists is, amongst themselves, a mana seeking/gaining exercise by mana whenua. It has been applied in Auckland where trampers are debarred from the magnificent Waitakeres Regional Park and spreading of soil is left just to the more efficient pigs. Simillrly at a hui in 2019 reps of the Tupuna Maunga Authority openly stated it as their policy, and have exercised by felling all the grand exotic trees.
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