Te Rūnanga-ā-Iwi o Ngāti Kahu
Land Claims Report for April 2013
1. Application for binding recommendations
2. Hearing for Te Ana o Taite in Court of Appeal 26-27 March
3. Matike Mai Aotearoa – the Independent Constitutional Transformation Working Party.
Summary
• We are currently awaiting advice on our application for binding recommendations.
• Carrington Farms and the Far North District Council’s appeal in respect of Te Ana o Taite was heard in the Court of Appeal in Wellington on 26 and 27 March. We are awaiting their decision.
• Matike Mai Aotearoa is completing its first round of consultation by July. We will then start writing up our report for National Iwi Chairs Forum. A Napier community group has asked me to deliver a lecture on 22 April on our work.
1. Application for binding recommendations
We are currently awaiting advice on our application for binding recommendations and as such have nothing to report on this matter for this month.
2. Hearing for Te Ana o Taite in Court of Appeal 26-27 March
Russell McVeagh reported at the end of the two day hearing that overall the case went well, although we need to await the decision of the Court. They are considering
a) Whether the out of court settlement we signed in 2001 is still binding on Carrington Farms and the Far North District Council.
Our lawyers consider that it is likely that the court will find against Carrington Farms and in our favour on this and that Carrington Farms will not be able build anything within 800 metres of the mean high water mark. If that is their decision, then Te Ana o Taite will be protected, at least in the meantime.
b) Whether the Far North District Council should have notified us about the Carrington Farms application
The legal requirements to notify applications are very narrow. The judges indicated that what Carrington Farms did was “illogical” (they applied for one consent that didn’t have to be notified (the building consent) and once they’d got that argued that every other consent they needed (the subdivision consent) had to be granted no matter how wrong it is in law.) However the court may consider that the law does not allow them to find in our favour on this. That will mean that Carrington Farms can simply sell the land to another company (their own probably) and apply again for a consent because the Settlement Agreement won’t apply to another company.
c) Whether the Environment Court was wrong in dealing with the building consents and the subdivision consent together (we say they were).
This one could go either way. From a practical perspective, if we are successful on this issue but not on the notification point or the Settlement Agreement, it will still be open to Carrington Farms to apply for dwellings, the difference being that they will not be able to get a subdivision consent to sell the lots.
Alan Hetaraka attended the hearing. Many thanks to those who gave koha so that he could go.
3. Matike Mai Aotearoa – the Independent Constitutional Transformation Working Party.
Moana Jackson has now recovered from his minor heart surgery and is continuing to conduct hui about a written constitution based on tikanga, He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti. A number of requests have come in from iwi authorities recently (probably because of the publicity being given to the government’s Constitutional Advisory Panel). Moana will be visiting Whanganui, Te Tau Ihu (The Top of the South Island), Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Whātua, Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau-a-Apanui and Ngāpuhi. Once my teaching finishes at the beginning of July I will be accompanying him.
In August Aotearoa Matike Mai will start analyzing all the questionnaires that have been filled in around the country. We will report on that to National Iwi Chairs’ Forum in November.
A Napier community group asked me to deliver a lecture for them on our group’s work and why it is being done. I travel there tomorrow to deliver it. The Lecture is entitled ‘Te Tiriti o Waitangi: Removing the Shackles of Colonization’. The lecture covers the history of British refusal to adhere to the treaty they signed, Te Tiriti, and how the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a blueprint for implementing Te Tiriti. It includes discussion on the Ngāpuhi Speaks report, our treaty claims and our resource management battles.
Professor Margaret Mutu
22 April 2014