$170m Tuhoe settlement, compromise on Urewera park
BUSINESSDESK: Ngai Tuhoe negotiators have agreed to settle the tribe's historic grievances with the Crown in a $170 million deal that includes shared management of Te Urewera National Park.
The deal is among the biggest to date, and includes Tuhoe's share of the $400 million Central North Island forestry settlement, known as Treelord, where the East Cape iwi received some $67.3 million and a quarter of the 176,000ha of land.
The settlement also includes the implementation of the social services management plan where government agencies work with Tuhoe to lift health, education and housing standards.
The offer will now be put to Tuhoe's 35,000 members for ratification.
"I am delighted to reach the goal of a Crown offer that can be developed into a deed of settlement," Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson says.
"The conditions in Te Urewera, which contains some of our most deprived and isolated communities, show the very real and continued effects of the Crown's Treaty breaches on the daily lives of Ngai Tuhoe people in the present."
The negotiations hit a speed bump in 2010, when Prime Minister John Key took the national park off the negotiating table, and the Crown has now offered to share governance of Te Urewera under a separate legal entity.
The government has had a turbulent relationship with Ngai Tuhoe, which didn't sign the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, after the Crown confiscated much of its land during the latter half of the 19th century and entered into a drawn-out war with the iwi.
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Comments and questions66
Um, not to put too fine a word on it Chris, but how can the Crown have breached it's Treaty obligations to Tuhoe when Tuhoe did not sign said treaty? You can't have your kai and eat it to.
Good point. Could you please show the Crown the exit door?
Why dont you just give them a cheque book with an unlimited overdraft and be done with it.
Chris Finlayson has an alternative agenda since he represented the maoris against the Crown prior to moving into Govt
The offer pales in comparison to the actual value and loss of economic base. The total value of the settlements is less than what the crown paid to bail out to those failed finance companies?? ...and they had nothing stolen from them, or houses and crops burnt. They didn't even pay their investors, they gave them selves a raise.
How much is the NZ taxpayer borrowing per week?
Yet we have idiots like Finlayson who thinks he is ever so superior giving away money. How big of him.
This tribe obviously had a legitimate case, how do you muppets propose to deal with a backlash that could see violence in the streets if these issues were ignored as you are suggesting... grow up!
Well Paul N bring it on, let me tell you Maori bleed to
Hey Anonymous #4, Get some education about New Zealand's actual history - not the redneck version you constantly hear on the talkback radio - and you'll discover why Tuhoe went through the Treaty negotiation process. Oh, that's right, that would take some effort, wouldn't it. Just take the easier option.
Typical Maori if you have another view point to theirs you're a redneck,what's worse is that our stupid government agrees with them,then pays them money for it.
Tuhoe have been harmed by Crown actions. Iwi who are economically sound will contribute to the the wellbeing of the country. Would the various anonymous respondents prefer Tuhoe to sort things out by armed resistance?
Let them try; we'll fxxx them up once and for all.
Let them have a go, remember there are plenty of Kirima off the land with bush craft skills and weapons.
Given the Kirima population numbers versus Maori the latter are outnumbered
Ahh so you'd prefer terrorism.You wouldn't get very far with the UN especially the Americans.
This is ridiculous we're the only country in the OECD that awards large sums of money to a minority group of people over a dated document from a couple of hundred years ago.It makes us look like the backward second world country we are.
It makes you wonder why there is so much poverty in Maori families when there are Billions of dollars being given away on supposed land grievances. Why not just give every Maori a couple of million each, it would be so much cheaper and Im sure far more beneficial to them as they could actually get to see some of it instead of the bureaucrats charging an arm and a leg to go through the courts for a claim.
interesting idea, but to make it fair & legal you would have to dna test and half caste or less wouldn't qualify. Cant have any of the later immigrants kids cheating and getting any birthright money
haha now that would be interesting as you might find that no one is eligible for a claim, wasn't there a theory not so long ago that the Maori were not here till a few hundred years after they first thought? and if you think about it they had no written language until the Europeans arrived so how would they know apart from tales told besides the camp fire, but alas, they didn't have one of those either.
Yawn - talkback history again to impress your mates over a beer
Anonymous #8, your maths must be a bit off. Couple of million each to each of the 35,000 members would be a lot more than the $170m settlement
I you look at the amount of money each year given just for Maori, from health and special funds to reunite families, Maori language and culture, subsidies because of hardships and settlements already paid and still paid on a regular basis. It costs billions each year and the sad part is its not getting any better.
So a little more than the $170m
For the life of me I cannot figure out how every government that comes into power gives away more money and land to maori. So stop giving away money and land that belongs to all of us.
Wars have conquered lands for centuries, should the Romans give back all they took or the English or French return America to the native Indians,
Who is to say that the first Maori to NZ didn't wipe out its original descendants, it is getting beyond a joke all this money giving, how about we just give them back everything but take everything off them that was not here when they came. that would put a spanner in the works #7 lol
And what makes NZ special is that it wasn't conquered. With 6+ countries competing for NZ, things were settled by a Treaty rather than war. France only gave up its claims to the SDouth Island in 1846 when it was proven the Treaty had been signed there.
Certainly war resulted later from people taking advantrage of the Treaty to obtain land for their own profit. (I wonder how you would feel if the land had been yours??)
The compensations paid now are much less than what was taken - see all the different settlements and note that iwi are not insisting on all they had stolen.
Yet there are families still rich today from the land taken by their ancestors. There is Maori land taken under the Public Works Act that has still not been paid for. There are companies still paying pepper corn rents while sub leasing at huge commercial gain.
Get real, and get up to date with much of the excellent work that has been achieved with the monies from Treaty settlements.
blah blah blah. I like the previous idea. You can have your $$$ but how about you revert back to a stone age pre-european age existence as you are so close to you 'land'. This happened over 150 years ago, move on...I am of Irish extraction do you suggest I petition the British government to give back my land that was taken by the Cromwellian land confiscation of 1652.
I assume your attitude to treaties also extends to the ultimate sacrament treaty of marriage - use, abuse at your discretion and profit and then disregard it when it is inconvenient?
you didn't answer my question. Should I petition the British government for land confiscation of the Cromwellian land confiscation 1652?answer that one.
Mate, why not? What's stopping you. Armed resistance is part of the Irish psyche, the Chuculain way. If you have the original Irish title before Cromwell confiscated it in 1652, then write a letter to Buckingham Palace. At least you will get a letter of reply with letterhead.
I'm not aware of any Treaty that would entitle you to do so there. And THAT is the difference you have to come to grips with.
Gees, you milk drinking kiwis are a lot of cry babies. You don't need a Treaty to make a protest. Or write to the Queen. Good on the Maoris for standing up for their rights. Tuhoe did not sign a Treaty but they had balls to keep going against the Crown. Half your SAS is Maori. Your Governor-General is Maori. Mate, you guys got types like John Ansell or Michael Laws or Don Brash leading the anti-Maori charges. Thats going to makeTuhoe tremble. Yeah right. O'Rodaigh Abu.
Half the SAS may be Maori but the other half are either on the dole or in jail contributing nothing to New Zealand. They cost the hard working New Zealand tax payer billions in social services costs,benefit payments,housing costs and on top of that our stupid government gives them hundreds of millions more in redress.Yeah Maori have been a real benefit to New Zealand,what would we do without them.
I'm not aware of any treaty that is up held by the majority of New Zealanders ,only a minority of Maoris and THATS what you as a Maori have to come to grips with.
Shame. That money could feed every hungry school kid in the country for years.
Could care less about the money. Other interests in Te Urewera can have a token advisory role for a change. We have presided over Te Urewera for over a thousand years, why do we need to do joint anything with part-time, recent loopies (affectionate term for 'tourists')
Tuhoe and Te Urewera Facts: Majority Population. Never Relinquished, Historical Rights and Interests. Crown Forces Illegaly Aquired Land and Killed it's inhabitants. More money was "given" by the crown bail out out those dodgy fraudulent investment companies down south.
Revisionist history as usual. "over a thousand years" hah, more like a couple of hundred years at most and only because war pushed them inland.
Yawn - talklback history again
You can ring fence your Ureweras and stick all Tuhoe inside, let them build their own hospitals and services et al and stay out of the rest of New Zealand
More taxpayer monies thrown down the drain.
When will the British Government compensate the people of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, America, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand for all the wrong committed by there actions?
Never - why should my tax payer dollar pay for the actions of the British Government 150 years ago?
How does one become Tuhoe? Sign me up!!
We shouldn't be giving money to moari tribal groups as it is proven not to work, the average moari family doesn't get any of the money only the very few select family within the tribe see any.
Yawn - talkback history again. Thank goodness New Zealand's economy isn't in your hands.
Finlayson is pro-Maori,. at the expense of everyone else. The Nat's should wise up and bring him under control instead of being so spineless.
Finlayson is a complete joke and a traitor to New Zealanders. How does this fruit fly sleep at night?
The Maoris have to get in quick before DNA shows they were not first to settle NZ and are entitled to SFW like the rest of us.
Yawn - DNA testing has in fact shown that all the claims of earlier peoples are wrong and that the Moriori were originally Maori.
There is also DNA evidence that Maoris originated from Taiwan 3000 years ago clearly making them an Asian immigrant.We therefor have a case to deport Maoris back to Taiwan if they continue to disrupt our New Zealand way of life.
We need to now seriously consider looking at whether Maoris are an appropriate immigrant to our country and if deportation is a viable option.
I'd be happy to equally support a case for a review of your status.
Following Mr Findlayson's logic: Britain should be donated to Denmark , China should hand it self over to Mongolian, Spain should be given South America and Southern Europe handed to Greece. This would right the wrongs of the last 1000 years. Who else has signed up to this nonsense? No one just NZ. Are we progressive or just stupid?
Do you have an equally cavaliar attitude to your marriage contract and commercial contracts? Because that is what the difference is.
Did anyone tell Tangata Whinlayson that Tuhoe took up arms against the Crown?
When you do that and lose, you get punished.
Often, in fact, you get executed. That was certainly the way in old Maoridom, where you tended to get eaten as well.
Griever Maori are the spoilt teenagers of New Zealand society. They need some strong adults to stand up to them, not a chamber full of appeasing Chamberlains.
To join the Treatygate campaign and push for a referendum for a one vote/fix all Colourblind State, go to www.johnansell.wordpress.com.
Yawn - talkback history creating tinpot leadership pretenders
you spend most of your time saying yawn. Yawn to you your comments are brain dead
Bit like your understanding of history
Did anyone tell you John that Queen Victoria ordered that the Treaty be "honoroubly and scrupulously upheld (an instruction still in the archives of the Colonial Office in London).
Perhaps if your ancestors had obeyed their monarch, none of this would have happened.......
Queen Victoria blah blah .Typical Maori one monement theyre for the crown next they're against it.
Oh dear - another case of not liking the facts of history.
Might has always been right throughout history not idealism.
Settle down John
Quickly the Tuhoe have fantastic Intellectual Property!!
Sell the advice to the Greeks they are going to sue the Germans for War damages!! The Tuhoe know how to play marta like no other. My God the French, Polish and Co will want a pound of flesh from the aryans.
If the Greeks can prove that, does that mean the UK Gov't indemnifies the NZ Gov't for crimes against Maori?
Great read..
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/business/greece-scours-archives-to-seek-nazi-damages/story-fn7ki9jk-1226471580014
Stop awarding redress to Maori and throw the treaty out.Let's put a government in that represents the wishes of the New Zealand people and not a minority.
To all Maoris out there.This is going to be the last time we're giving you a dam thing.
Understand that the majority of New Zealand are against this and we will not stand for any more.Remember we are the largest voting block in this country not you.This stupid government won't listen to us fine we'll put one in who will.
Geez mate, all this fighting talk. Just as well you are called Anonymous. Otherwise you be buying the next round of jugs.
Ha ha listen to the Maori above he believes he has credibility.Look we kicked your ass before we'll kick it again.We'll just rely on you doing the Maori thing of screwing things up.
Settle down mate. Who is going to do your fighting? Last time you got Irish regiments, you got British regiments stationed across in New South Wales to come out and fight the Maori. Thats how part of my gaelic ancestry got here. Maori & Irish know how to fight & drink & sing. Shettle down. Buy another round. Sing us a song.
Youre too late arnt you sidhe.Damage has already been done,what will be will be.
The UN normally gets involved in wars usually led by the Americans(providing its an Anglo Saxon bias) and you really dont want to be on the side opposing them cause they intervene everywhere at any opportunity.
I cannot believe I am being held accountable for the actions of someone else some 150 years ago!. While the world is in crisis, we should be capitalising investing this kind of money in smart ways, not giving it to the Maori's!.
If they want to be reimbursed, go to England. I've had it up to here with this country and its P.C. policies.
Hmmm, so St John is losing $15 million per year providing a life saving service and Tuhoi receives a $170 million tax-payer settlement. How about cutting the St John service to Tuhoe, that should reduce the losses by a couple of million at least?
Yes, the British were good like that. (Mugs, some might say.)
That's why they paid for Taranaki five times.
That's why they settled 'fully and finally' with Ngai Tahu five times, and Tainui four times.
Tell me Anon, what compensation did the Taranaki colonisers of the Chathams offer the descendants of the Moriori?