Call for bigger treaty settlements

The Maori Party wants bigger treaty settlements, arguing deals which better reflect what claimants have lost would be more durable.

It says it would be up to those who have already settled whether to try to revisit their deals if such a policy won wider political support - although it is highly unlikely to gain enough.

Those who have settled have signed full and final deals and did so on the understanding the Crown's benchmarks for determining the size of claims would remain largely unchanged.

The plan was part of the party's Tiriti o Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi policy, which stated the treaty should be the basis for constitutional change.

The party wants to establish a Tiriti/Treaty Commission - equally comprised of Maori and non-Maori members - to facilitate a process to debate that change which would involve new forms of governance and power-sharing.

And the party has pledged to entrench the Maori seats, warning of civil unrest if moves are made to axe them without the backing of Maori.

Maori Party Ikaroa Rawhiti candidate Atareta Poananga said yesterday Maori got only about 1c compensation for every dollar's worth of land and resources they had lost through the settlement process.

This created resentment and undermined the likelihood the settlements would be durable in the long term.

People were complaining that the settlement process took too long but failed to take the poor value of the packages into account, she said.

The party would review the Office of Treaty Settlements and transform it into an independent organisation which operated from a two-world - Maori and Crown - perspective.

The commission would oversee the operations of the reformed agency to ensure settlements were dealt with in a transparent and fair way, essentially preventing the process being controlled by the Crown.

Claimants and the Waitangi Tribunal would also be better resourced to enable settlements to be concluded more quickly, Ms Poananga said.

In Auckland Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples called for an ironclad commitment from Labour it would not back moves to remove the seven Maori seats - even if it lost them at the coming election.

National Party leader Don Brash has said his party would abolish the Maori seats if it formed the next government.

Maori seats

* Labour - seats remain, removed only with support of Maori.

* National - scrap Maori seats.

* Greens - seats entrenched - only removed with backing of Maori.

* New Zealand First - review, only removed with the support of Maori.

* Maori Party - seats entrenched, only removed with 75 per cent support of Maori and Parliament.

* United Future - should eventually go, but only with Maori support.

* Act - scrap Maori seats.