Te Rūnanga-ā-Iwi o Ngāti Kahu Land Claims Portfolio
Report for June 2018
1. Waitangi Tribunal judicial review
2. National Iwi Chairs Forum – Independent Monitoring Mechanism heading to Geneva
Summary
• The application to the Waitangi Tribunal for binding recommendations is on hold awaiting the outcome of a review by the High Court. The Crown is continuing to put resources into disrupting the court proceedings in order to delay having to return the land it stole from Ngāti Kahu.
• The Independent Monitoring Mechanism is sending two representatives to Geneva in July to present our fourth report on the government’s compliance (or lack thereof) with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
1. Waitangi Tribunal judicial review
The application to the Waitangi Tribunal for binding recommendations is on hold awaiting the outcome of a review by the High Court. The review will consider the Tribunal’s decision to disregard our application for it make binding recommendations and instead, deciding to conduct a new inquiry into Ngāti Kahu’s claims – even though the Tribunal upheld our claims to 1865 in 1997 and undertook at that time to make binding recommendations to recover our lands for us. Now, under pressure from the Crown, the Tribunal is trying to backtrack. The Court of Appeal ordered the Tribunal to make binding recommendations in December 2016. The High Court will review the Tribunal’s refusal to carry out that order.
The High Court application has now been filed and copies have gone to the Tribunal and to the Crown. The first call for this matter was scheduled for 11 June but did not take place. The Crown is still trying to drag things out. It is asking the High Court to allow anyone who may (or may not) have an interest to participate, including non-Ngāti Kahu individuals. That will delay and prolong proceedings considerably.
2. National Iwi Chairs Forum – Independent Monitoring Mechanism heading to Geneva
In July two of our Monitoring Mechanism technical advisors will head to the United Nations in Geneva to present our fourth report to the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. They are Bill Hamilton (Ngāti Kahungunu) and Tracey Whare (Ngāti Raukawa). They will be accompanied by Jessica Ngātai of the Human Rights Commission. Jessica visited Ngāti Kahu in May to gather input to the constitutional transformation section of the report. The link to the full report is Monitoring Mechanism UNDRIP\2018 Monitoring Report - draft 15 June 2018 (003).docx
The following press release summaries and highlights the main points of the report:
MEDIA RELEASE
Indigenous Concerns to be Reported to the United Nations
The Independent Monitoring Mechanism will make its 4th annual report to the United Nations on the state of government’s protection and promotion of indigenous rights in New Zealand in the week beginning 9 July. The report will be presented to the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the United Nations watchdog for the implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The New Zealand government originally opposed the Declaration but in 2010 agreed to support it. However, since then, it has does nothing to implement it. That led to the establishment of the Independent Monitoring Mechanism by the National Iwi Chairs Forum in 2014.
“Our priority is for government to work with us to develop a National Plan of Action as it has done for other United Nations treaties. The plan will include actions around constitutional transformation and honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi so that together we can reduce the disparities that exist for our people in the social, economic and cultural sectors,” said Professor Margaret Mutu, Chairperson of the Monitoring Mechanism. “That includes revisiting the settlement of treaty claims so that it becomes an agreed process which is fair and just rather than the current one which strips Māori of their human and legal rights as well as their lands and produces massive benefits for the Crown.”
“We are also concerned about the government’s failure to adequately address the climate crisis our world is facing, their insistence on approving seabed mining activities that may have short term gains but cause long term environmental damage, wholesale selling of our water without our free, prior and informed consent and their support for the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) all of which undermine our traditional kaitiaki responsibilities over our whenua.”
“Although we have seen incremental improvements in some areas,” Professor Mutu said, “it is not enough to ensure the survival of our reo. Our women and Tangata Whaikaha (disabled) continue to be disproportionately discriminated against and our participation in local government is marginal at best. Our aim is to work with government to develop and implement the legislation, policies and practices that will bring about real change. We hope that the United Nations will encourage them to do that,” she concluded.
Professor Margaret Mutu
24 June 2018