Christopher Finlayson: Fix injustices, then move on

Christopher Finlayson

Today the Government is hosting a national hui for iwi and tribal groups negotiating Treaty of Waitangi claims with the Crown.

Our goal is to have all these claims settled by 2014, and today's hui is an important step towards the Crown and claimants working together to ensure this happens.

Whenever Treaty settlements are discussed my office receives correspondence questioning why we don't all simply "move on" as a country.

The hui is called "te kokiri ngatahi" - moving forward together. That's why it is useful to remember why the settlement of historical Treaty claims is so important for this Government and for the country.

The Crown entered into a treaty with Maori 169 years ago. Between then and now the Crown breached some of its obligations. These breaches caused injury to Maori, and to their descendants.

This happened in the past, but it is not dusty history. The breaches by the Crown of its undertakings caused real damage to real New Zealanders who lived under its protection.

There is a wealth of documented evidence, and it is not pretty. The meaning of the Treaty has been the subject of legal, historical and political debate. But at a bare minimum, it was a guarantee that the Crown would treat Maori with respect and honour and would deal in good faith.

It does not seem too much to have asked back then, and it does not seem too much to ask now.

Treaty settlements are not about one group of people being unequal under the law. This country has one law for all - the Treaty guaranteed that. The settlements process is about recognising those instances - regrettably common - where the Crown did not treat all the people of New Zealand equally - where people in New Zealand under the Crown's protection were stripped of land they owned, or deprived of the right to be treated fairly, despite its undertaking to stop that from happening.

Anyone who thinks the Treaty settlement process is about securing privileges for Maori need only familiarise themselves with the recent Waitangi Tribunal report on the history of the Urewera region. It does not make pleasant reading.

It presents the detailed history of the Urewera region for the first time. The tribunal describes the Crown's confiscation of 24,280ha of Tuhoe land on its first real contact with that tribe.

It details the attacks on the tribe in the Bay of Plenty to apprehend Te Kooti - raids that started as justified military action, but led to the intentional slaughter of civilians and prisoners, and were described by one senior military officer at the time as "extermination".

Since the 1970s thousands of pages have piled up, documenting these grievances in the reports of the Tribunal. It is not credible for those of us in government - it is not really even possible, if we are honest - to deny the wrongs happened, or try to forget about them.

Not all land was taken by force. In some cases the Crown bought land and did not pay a fair price.

Within days of signing the Treaty in 1840, the Crown bought 1214ha of downtown Auckland for 281.

Within six months it resold just 36ha of that for 24,500. It is pointless to feel guilt about this. For one thing, none of us alive today was responsible for what happened then. However, those who hold the levers of power in the Crown must take action to redress these wrongs, because it was the Crown that caused these grievances.

We cannot give back all that was taken, and to their credit no claimants have demanded that the Crown do so. The cost of settlements is around 5 per cent of the value of what iwi lost. According to some estimates, it is much less.

There is no way of knowing what the real figure is, and it does not matter. The Treaty settlement process is as much about recognition and healing as it is about recompense.

It's why other parts of settlements - like restoring traditional names, or co-management of culturally significant land with the Government - may not have any monetary value. They are important to iwi and the way they relate to the country.

Treaty settlements are good for the whole country. There has been much talk of economic stimulus recently. Treaty settlements help unlock the economic development potential which exists in the regions and in the Maori community.

Ngai Tahu is an iwi that has grown its assets considerably since its comprehensive settlement in 1997. The Central North Island forestry settlement also shows the way that Maori could have used their assets historically for economic growth.

All New Zealanders benefit from the improvement in the Crown-Maori relationship - jobs and wealth are created, and standards of living are raised.

Settlements address our past and invest in a common future. The wrongs of history are real. Failure to address genuine grievance creates a new grievance.

But by providing an end point for the injustices and reaching durable and just settlements, we can move forward as a country - together.

Christopher Finlayson is Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations.