January 05, 2020
Ngati Paoa faction seeks new mandate
Ngāti Paoa Iwi Trust is asking tribe members to give it the mandate to negotiate settlement of all the iwi’s historical claims in Auckland and Hauraki.
It’s seeking to replace the mandate conferred on the Ngāti Paoa Trust Board in 2011.
The iwi trust was set up by the trust board to become the tribe’s post-settlement governance entity, but the small group in control quickly assumed full responsibility for representing the tribe in negotiations and official engagements.
That led to some iwi members taking high court action to revive the trust board and hold fresh elections, and the two bodies have been vying over the mandate ever since.
The negotiators seem to have taken an independent line, signing off a $23.5 million settlement early last year despite objections from both the trust and the board.
The trust board took a knock last month with an Environment Court finding on a Waiheke resource consent that effectively awarded the iwi trust for allowing the trust board to become legally inoperative between 2014 and 2017.
But the court also noted evidence the iwi trust may also have been legally inoperative.
The board will next month put its appeal against a Māori Land Court decision removing its authority to represent the trine in Resource Management Act matters.
The two bodies have separate membership rolls, and a court-ordered mediation last year failed to get off first base.
Voting on the mandate opens on February 3 and closes on March 9.
There will be information hui where votes can be cast in late February at Kaiaua, Tahuna, Hamilton and Manukau.
Submissions can be made to the Office of Treaty Settlements, and it’s up to the Ministers of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations and Māori Development to decide if the crown will recognise the mandate.
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