KEY POINTS:
October 31 is deal day for Ngati Porou as it heads into Treaty negotiations with the Government using one of the tribe's high-profile business brains.
Business Roundtable chairman Rob McLeod is chief negotiator for the iwi, with Whai Dewes and Matanuku Mahuika also part of the team.
Ngati Porou runanga chairman Apirana Mahuika said the East Coast tribe wanted a settlement by October and Mr McLeod would be heavily involved in negotiating the dollars and cents of the deal.
"Basically, because of his experience, we can be talking about a [figure], so we can go to the Crown and say, 'We want X amount of dollars and this is how we calculated that amount'."
He also wanted to scotch any perceptions that Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia was greasing the settlement wheels for his tribe.
The tribe had been working on the settlement for the past 16 years.
"It's got nothing to do with Parekura. People keep saying this is because of Parekura. No. He is unfairly labelled and Ngati Porou is sullied by that view."
Mr Mahuika was confident the deadline would be met.
If the settlement comes off it will add to the tribe's ground-breaking foreshore and seabed deal whichwas signed this year.
Meanwhile, Mr McLeod has clear ideas about how iwi commercial entities should be run after settlement.
Speaking at an Auckland University conference last week, he said that while tribal commercial entities were getting good at making money, there was still a long way to go in knowing how to distribute benefits.
Ngai Tahu was at least thinking about it with its "iwi saver" scheme.
"How do we actually get better deployment of the benefits? I think business people have a role to play."
While strong leaders could ensure the smooth flow of management, structure and governance failure were more likely in the tribal sector than in the wider public company sector.
That was because there were fewer "pressure points", where shareholders watched directors "like hawks" and could access reports published by an army of professional analysts.
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* Te Runanga o Ngati Porou represents the 72,000-strong East Coast iwi.
* Direct negotiations are circumventing the Waitangi Tribunal and are expected to speed up the settlement process by years.
