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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Monday, March 12, 2007

Ngati Whatua o Orakei deal to be probed

The Waitangi Tribunal is in Auckland this week to consider whether the Government followed proper steps to settle Ngati Whatua o Orakei's claims to the Auckland isthmus.

While the sticker price of the agreement in principle is $10 million, rights to buy large numbers of Crown properties means the deal could be worth a lot more to Ngati Whatua.

Other tribes believe Ngati Whatua is getting the plums, and there will be little hope of getting a fair settlement for their interests in the same areas.

Seven groups, including Ngati Te Ata, Ngai Tai ki Tamaki, Te Kawerau a Maki, Te Taou, Marutuahu and Hauraki Maori Trust Board are crying foul.

Marutuahu lawyer Paul Majurey told the tribunal that when it entered negotiations with the Orakei hapu, the Crown failed to investigate what customary interests others had in Tamaki.

He says other iwi were not allowed to see the historical research until well after the deal was done, and it has at every turn tried to avoid real scrutiny.

Ngati Whatua's lawyer, Don Wackrow, said everything that has been done is above board, and the limited and modest redress the hapu is getting leaves more than enough for other claimant groups.

The hearing continues until Thursday.

RONGA USE PROMOTED BY HERBAL SOCIETY

It's national herb awareness week, and the president of the Medical Herbalists association is urging people to learn more about the plants used in rongoa Maori.

Nelson-based Chris Tufnell says Maori have used plants like kawakawa and korimako for centuries.

Ms Tufnel says people overlook many common remedies.

“Herbs for example like manuka are wonderful anti-fungal herb, anti-microbial, great to take when you’ve got colds and flu, and even just a simple cup of tea made with the leaves and flowers is a wonderful treatment,” Ms Tufnell says.

She says the association concerned the Government's intention to put herbal products put under the control of a trans Tasman regulator will deny people the ability to use many rongoa plants.

RACE STILL TOO BIG A FACTOR IN HEALTH, EDUCATION

The Race Relations Commissioner says race continues to be a negative factor in health and education.

In his annual report, Joris de Bres highlighted issues raised by Otago University researchers and the Ministry of Education.

He says discrimination is more prevalent in the health sector than previously thought.

“When you take out all the other factors of economic and social situation and so on, there was a significant factor in health inequality that related purely to ethnicity, and the experience of discrimination towards Maori in the health system was much higher than people thought,” Mr De Bres says.

MAORI LEADERSHIP NEEDS REFLECTION

Tainui chairperson Tukoroirangi Morgan says Maori need to take a hard look at their leadership structures.

Race Relations Conciliator Joris de Bres has suggested a council of chiefs and elders may be needed to advise government on broad policy issues.

Mr Morgan says it's an interesting idea, but Maori need to get such a body right.

He says there are generational issues at play, with the graduates of kohanga reo and kura kaupapa only now reaching their 20s.

“It's the gap between the 55s and the 30s that is going to be troublesome for us. Unless Maoridom is smart to begin to build a process around succession planning, we are going to have clear gap where there isn’t a coordinated approach to who takes the leadership of Maori going forward,” Mr Morgan says.

He says Maori leadership bodies need to take into account both traditional iwi leadership and those who get their mandate by elections to trusts and boards.

BOOZING YOUTH BLAMED ON PARENTS

The Alcohol Advisory Council wants parents to take more responsibility for their children's drinking.

Deputy chief executive Sandra Kirby says while police are struggling to break up underage drinking parties and picking up unsupervised drinkers, parents are plying their kids with more booze.

Ms Kirby says it has become too easy for young people to get alcohol, and not because of any looseness at the bottle store.

“The pattern for Maori and non-Maori is much the same, so that the biggest suppliers are parents or family members, although it may be in Maori families that its wider than parents, brothers and sisters, maybe aunts and uncles,” Ms Kirby says.

While she supports the right of parents to make their own decisions about when their children can drink alcohol, they should be there when they are drinking it.

WAITANGI TRIBUNAL DIGS INTO ORAKEI DEAL

The Waitangi Tribunal will today dig into the processes the government followed in agreeing to a $10 million plus settlement of Ngati Whatua's claims to Auckland city.

Seven groups with overlapping claims are challenging the Agreement in Principle signed by the Crown and the Orakei hapu last June.

The first witness at Auckland's Airport Centra Hotel is Massey University historian Michael Belgrave, whose 576 page report on the interests of the Marutuahu confederation in the North Shore and the eastern part of the Auckland isthmus went unread by Crown negotiators.

Marutuahu will also give evidence they were not allowed to see or challenge the historical material the Crown was relied on.

Other iwi will tell how they were shut out of the process, and how the deal is creating tension among the tribes.

Ngati Whatua chief executive Tiwana Tibble will respond with the hapu's perspective.

The hearing continues until Thursday.

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