Urban Maori win case against Te Ohu Kai Moana over control of $20m trust

The National Urban Māori Authority (NUMA) and Te Waipareira Trust have succeeded in their claim over a $20 million trust set up for the benefit of urban Māori, meaning all directors of the trust must represent Māori who are not affiliated with an iwi.

Te Putea Whakatupu Trust was set up under the 2004 Māori Fisheries Act as part of the settlement of Māori fishing rights claims to provide for urban Māori who might not benefit from iwi-based settlements because they no longer had an active association with their tribe.

The plaintiffs said Te Ohu Kai Moana, which was set up to oversee Māori fisheries assets and currently controls Te Putea Whakatupu, failed to meet its statutory obligations because only one of the trust's three directors – John Tamihere – was affiliated with urban Māori, while the other two – Rikirangi Gage and Richard Jefferies – had strong iwi connections and no urban Maori connections.

Te Ohu Kai Moana had argued that the wording of the Māori Fisheries Act, which says the directors needed to have knowledge of and be able to represent the interests of urban Māori, meant that the board of directors must collectively fulfil the criteria but individual board members didn't have to.

Justice Simon France, who heard the case over two days in Wellington's High Court in April, said in his judgement that the correct reading of the act was that every director must be able to represent urban Māori.

"Given the focus of Te Putea, and given that in reality the funds allocated to Te Putea were a very small percentage of the overall settlement, a requirement that all three directors have experience with the needs of the target group is not an unexpected criterion," Justice France said.

He declined to comment on past appointments made by the trust or the plaintiff's claim that Te Ohu Kai Moana had a policy of only appointing one urban Māori affiliated director, saying there was "little ... to be gained by looking back."

Messrs Gage and Jefferies, the iwi-affiliated directors, were named as interested parties in the case but had resigned by the time of the hearing.

The plaintiffs asked the judge to rule that the directors should be able to demonstrate a history of urban Māori advocacy and executive or managerial level affiliations to urban Māori but Justice France declined to rule on that, saying it was unhelpful to be overly prescriptive.

NUMA and Te Waipareira Trust also challenged Te Ohu Kai Moana's response to an independent review of Te Putea by Wellington barrister Tim Castle in 2015 which recommended urban Māori get more say over the trust.

Iwi did not endorse the fundamental change recommended by Mr Castle but voted to increase the number of trustees from three to five. The plaintiffs challenged this for non-compliance with the statutory process, breach of natural justice and inconsistency with the statutory purposes.

Justice France said it was evident the review was not analysed properly as there was "an illegitimate emphasis" on the trust's funds being available to all Māori.

The judge accepted the trustee's process around the review was affected by the error but declined to quash the resolution as it was "actually a sensible one" and keeping it in place wouldn't prevent a further consultation process occurring.

The legal costs of both parties will be paid by the trust, which the judge said was appropriate as the trustee had not been functioning.

(BusinessDesk)