Plan reveals control option for Te Urewera Park

A couple of horses enjoy a stroll down a country road with the Ureweras as a backdrop. Photo / Alan Gibson

The scuttled Tuhoe settlement included a $120 million offer in which the Crown retained an option to take full management control of Te Urewera National Park if ownership was vested in the tribe.

It also featured the formation of a joint Crown/iwi park board, based on past co-governance models.

Nearly every government ministry could have been invited to work with Tuhoe, so that it could deliver social services in the future, according to a confidential and well-developed settlement package considered by a Cabinet committee in March.

Prime Minister John Key last week ruled out iwi ownership, saying it was unacceptable to the Government.

Both groups have been working towards an agreement in principle for two years, and Cabinet ministers were told that under the package, management could revert solely to the Crown as it retained a reversionary interest to allow it to temporarily regain full management control of Te Urewera in defined circumstances.

In terms of the $120 million the Government was prepared to offer, $66 million would be taken as cash. The remaining $54 million had already been paid from the tribe's interest in the multi-iwi Central North Island Forests or Treelords deal in 2008.

The other major negotiation plank is the tribe's push for mana motuhake, a form of self-government under which it would be responsible for providing government services, the package committed the Government to exploring the devolution of social services over a 30-year period.

On Monday, Mr Key acknowledged vesting of ownership was included in the paper which went through the Cabinet committee. However, he said, it was simply an option and was included by the negotiating team because it was the only remaining way to deal with the national park after Tuhoe rejected all other proposals.

Any such proposal would not form part of the official offer until the Cabinet approved it, which had never happened because he had withdrawn it before that stage.

Yesterday, Maori Party MP Hone Harawira questioned Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson after Mr Key said his veto stemmed from advice that at least three other iwi could make similar claims to national parks if Tuhoe's transfer went through.

Mr Finlayson said some of those iwi, which included Tuwharetoa, Taranaki, Whanganui and Ngai Tahu, had raised the matter informally with him.

Asked by Labour MP Shane Jones whether misleading and mocking Tuhoe was part of good faith negotiating, Mr Finlayson said no Crown minister had done so.

Mr Key faced questioning from Labour leader Phil Goff. He denied the handover of ownership was the "preferred option" passed by the Treaty Negotiations Committee and said he had no recollection of telling Tuhoe negotiator Tamati Kruger that such a deal was "complex but workable".

The Settlement

* Cash: $66 million.

* Plus: extra already given: $54 million.

* Land: 200,000ha Te Urewera National Park.

* Politics: 30-year plan for limited self government.