Loss of investment opportunity cost of being late-settling iwi

Friday, 16 July 2021

Paula Paranihi of Ngā Iwi o Te Reureu tells the Waitangi Tribunal about the damage urbanisation has done to Māori.

A lengthy wait for their chance to settle with the Crown has exacerbated the financial pain for Manawatū iwi.

Economist Peter Fraser outlined the cost of Ngāti Kauwhata and Ngāti Raukawa being late-settling iwi to the tribunal at the Feilding Civic Centre on Friday, the last day of hearings for week seven of the Manawatū ki Porirua inquiry.

The inquiry is examining whether thousands of hectares of land from Manawatū to Kāpiti were taken illegitimately. It was the inquiry’s last week in the northern part of the region before moving south next month.

Fraser explained how iwi who had settled early, Waikato Tainui and Ngāi Tahu, received money from the Government in the 1990s, which gave them an advantage because they were able to use the money.

Dennis Emery, centre left, and Brian Emery lead a final waiata at the Waitangi Tribunal hearing at the Feilding Civic Centre on Friday.

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Fraser said Ngāti Raukawa and Ngāti Kauwhata, who were yet to settle, had no advantage.

“By 2020 Waikato Tainui had an asset base of $1.4 billion and that had transformed them. If they had delayed their settlement for whatever reason until 2020 that would have cost them, in financial terms alone, $1.2b.

“That’s excluding the benefit to their people, which is enormous. If they had settled in 2025, which is the potential time for Ngāti Kauwhata and Ngāti Raukawa, that would have cost another $600 million.”

A rāhui has been in place on the Ōroua River south of Feilding for almost 60 years.

Fraser said it was an inequitable and unfair situation, so there should be a separate process, additional to the treaty settlement, to recognise the loss of investment revenue by late-settling iwi. It should mirror the protection put in place for the first iwi to settle.

This would cover Raukawa’s lost investment opportunity.

Raukawa, as one of the most landless iwi, would be at a disadvantage because it wanted to buy land, but the price of land had increased enormously.

Fraser said there had been a lost generation as the iwi waited for compensation, which could be used to help its people.

An example he was used was the rāhui placed on the Ōroua River due to pollution in 1964, as the elders hoped they would be able to fix the problems with their awa.

The elders who put the rāhui in place had hoped to see it lifted, which didn’t happen, and now the iwi didn’t want it to happen for another generation.

Fraser was asked by Crown lawyer Jacki Cole how the iwi could have avoided a late settlement. He said the Crown could have put in more resources to speed up the process.

“When the Crown wants to it can get money out the door really, really fast. Last year in the middle of a world pandemic the Government got $12b out the door in six weeks for the wage subsidy.

“The Crown can do it when it wants to. It is time the Crown started wanting to.”

Paula Paranihi of Ngā Iwi o Te Reureu spoke about the damage urbanisation has done to Māori.

She said few iwi members lived on their ancestral land, bordering the Rangitīkei River north of Halcombe, because there wasn't enough Māori-owned land to attract people, so the iwi could not progress.

It also meant they were losing their traditional knowledge, cultural practice and identity, as older family members died.

Paranihi said Māori didn’t want to wait for every three-year election cycle nor be a political football.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported iwi sought settlement with the Waitangi Tribunal. Settlement is between iwi and the Crown. Updated July 20, 10.47am.