Pee Kay: Consultants or Extortionists?

Last week, one of my mailing group emailed me about claims that a Tauranga iwi is allegedly demanding $45 million to withdraw objections to the Port of Tauranga’s expansion plans.

Naturally this piqued my curiosity, so I decided to do some digging.

It was not difficult to find the story online but it was impossible to find a mention of the $45m, – except on The Platform with Shane Jones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E8_UzHCuW4

This led me to investigate, what I believe is a more serious, widespread concern; the targeted shakedown of New Zealand businesses and individuals by local tribes.

Our MSM has been strangely, if not unsurprisingly, silent on these tribal actions over recent years. While major outlets look the other way, there is no shortage of examples showing corporations have been confronted with heavy-handed financial and operational ultimatums.

Essentially, they have a gun held to their head!

The foremost example of this financial cultural exploitation is the 2024, Ngai Tahu/Meridian Energy/Genesis Energy agreement to renew 18 resource consents to operate the vital Waitaki hydro scheme. The total “smoothing” package to secure support for the re-consenting application from multiple affected parties was reported to be more than $180 million.

What grinds my gears about this massive sum negotiated in exchange for the iwi agreeing not to object to critical resource consents for southern hydroelectric dams is the fact that we, the consumers will ultimately be the payers of that $180 million via our power accounts!

And the reasoning that Ngai Tahu applied to be able to extract $180 million from Meridian and Genisis… “Many of our wāhi tapu (sacred sites) and wāhi taoka (sites of significance) have been lost due to raised lake levels, and our connection to the whenua and awa has been weakened.”

How easy it is to argue this epitomises “cultural consultation” certainly not as a protection of heritage, but easily as a highly lucrative commercial transaction where corporate cooperation is bought out!

The proposed $300 million Mokihinui River hydro dam project stands as a textbook example of how quickly tribal cultural and environmental concerns can be made to vanish once corporate cash is exchanged!

Meridian Energy were in dispute with Ngati Waewae over Meridians plans to construct a dam on the Mokihinui River.

In 2008, West Coast hapu Ngati Waewae was full of righteous, environmental indignation, strenuously opposing the 85-metre-high dam and arguing… “it would irreversibly destroy the river’s life force and devastate native eel populations.”

Now get this, half way through the hearings, this righteous cultural opposition simply vanished into thin air!

The tribal leaders executed a flawless U-turn to then publicly champion the huge Meridian project after quietly signing a confidential deal with Meridian Energy.

When the media blew the whistle on the backroom arrangement, an embarrassed Meridian scrambled to justify a payment but refused confirm how much it had paid. Meridian claimed an undisclosed sum paid to Ngati Waewae was fees for “expert consultancy” and “cultural impact assessments.” The payment was wrapped in the legal language of creating a “cultural fund” to mitigate cultural losses. Yeah right!

This is just another example of a cynical payoff to silence tribal opposition, opposition based on spurious claims. Both Meridian and tribal elites strongly spun the payoff as “standard, legal practice under the Resource Management Act!” Yeah Right!

But once again, we the consumer will ultimately pay the ransom!

And by the way, Ngati Waewae are a sub tribe of Ngai Tahu. It appears the Ngai Tahu corporate machine has truly mastered the art of the resource consent shakedown racket!

Lastly, during a 2006 Environment Court dispute over an Auckland composting facility, The Living Earth Composting, it was revealed that a prominent iwi representative from the Te Kawerau a Maki tribewith historical roots in the Auckland region, had co-authored a “Cultural Heritage Report” clearing the development after being paid an undisclosed sum by the developer.

But this was actually a demonstration of the underhandedness, deviousness and untrustworthiness of tribal cultural experts!

Shortly after co-authoring his “Cultural Heritage Report”, the same iwi shakedown expert took a separate payment from the regional council to give evidence in court, where he suddenly reversed his stance and opposed the project!

These high-profile examples show how the Resource Management Act’s mandatory consultation loop can be weaponised. When private tribal groups can indefinitely halt projects of national economic significance until a multi million dollar cheque is written, the line between legal cost-recovery and corporate shakedowns disappears entirely.

But for all my/our indignation and anger, wouldn’t you know it; these mafia style shakedowns actually enjoy full legal protection!

Well, sort of. Legal-ish may be a better term.

Through sheer political craftiness, Maori groups have gradually shifted the goalposts. Maori corporate entities have subtly redrawn the “legal boundaries” over the years, sanitising their financial demands as mandatory “consultancy fees.”

New Zealand planning law expertly launders Maori consultation and Cultural Impact Assessment fees as “innocent cost recovery.” Because the RMA forces councils and developers to protect ancestral heritage, local tribes have effectively become mandatory consultants. Legally, paying for their rubber stamp is treated just like hiring an archaeologist, scientist or an actual engineering firm!

New Zealand law treats Maori consultation and Cultural Impact Assessment fees as standard costs for expert advice. Because the law protects cultural heritage, local iwi can act as they like and charge what they like as environmental consultants!

So, when developers and individuals are forced to hand over large sums of money to tribal groups just for permission to build on their own land, this legal loophole looks less like expert consultation and more like customary corruption!

“Cultural consultation” becomes nothing more than a legal extortion!

Surely New Zealand’s planning and consents process requires investigation as massive financial demands from corporate entities to iwi must be stopped. Systemic “legal” blackmail must cease!

This bureaucratic racket has officially crossed the line into state-sanctioned extortion. What should be a respectful cultural exchange is now a weaponised corporate shakedown, holding everyday citizens to ransom just for trying to build a family home.

Are not these iwi elites shamelessly commodifying their own heritage for pure financial opportunism by forcing individuals to pay thousands in bogus “consultation fees” for arbitrary spiritual sign-offs?

Worse still, kowtowing local councils and complicit government ministries actively enforce this predatory behaviour, greenlighting a system of legalised bullying and extortion!

This is a cynical abuse of power that breeds division and bleeds, either directly or indirectly, ordinary New Zealanders dry!

Now, returning to the report that sparked this article; a Tauranga iwi, Ngati Kuku, allegedly demanding $45 million to withdraw their objections to the Port of Tauranga’s expansion plans.

This issue takes on a significant consequence as the ongoing dispute over the ports Stella Passage expansion project thwarts approval for the crucial shipping channel upgrade meaning infrastructure crucial to the port, the regions and the country’s growth is stymied by greed!

In a staggering display of this, state-sanctioned extortion, the Environment Court slapped the Port of Tauranga with a $298,023 penalty for Ngati Kuku’s “wasted effort” after the port suddenly shelved the expansion plan. This massive payout was ordered on top of the $977,362.32 the port had already funded for iwi participation, legal fees, and cultural expertise.

How bizarre is it when you cannot get a permit without financially arming your opponents ? Resource management has turned into a system where applicants must bankroll the very groups trying to stop them!

As the member of my e-mail group said “It seems to be a question of, if Maori object, – they win; if they lose,- they win!”

New Zealand cannot afford to let its infrastructure, housing and its economic future remain held hostage by an un-audited, closed-door protection racket. When “cultural consultation” becomes a multi million dollar toll gate hidden behind non-disclosure agreements, it ceases to be a legal framework; it can only be seen as extortion!

The time for polite tiptoeing around this corporate grift is over. Why should tribal elites line their pockets while regular New Zealanders pay the price in higher energy bills, delayed roads, and expensive housing?

By ignoring these loopholes in the latest RMA reforms, where the new Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill offered an obvious fix, the government has actively chosen to protect bogus consultation fees over real progress.

They could have slammed these consultation loopholes shut in the new bills, their silence speaks volumes.

Pee Kay writes he is from a generation where common sense, standards, integrity and honesty are fundamental attributes. This article was first published HERE