Timely fisheries settlement for Tainui

Tuku Morgan

The Waitangi Fisheries Commission is expected to provide a further cause for celebration today at the anniversary of the coronation of the Maori Queen, at Ngaruawahia.

It is understood Tainui leaders expect to announce a deal with the commission to receive the tribe's share of the $700 million 1992 fisheries settlement.

Tainui chairman Tuku Morgan said yesterday that the tribe was set to receive about $30 million in cash and assets, after the commission agreed it was exempt from meeting strict governance requirements set out in 2004 legislation.

He said the settlement would boost tribal assets to $340 million, doubling the tribe's original $170 million treaty settlement. "To have doubled the tribal asset value is an amazing development."

Mr Morgan said the result, from strong financial management, provided a strong base to provide greater commercial opportunity for the tribe.

"The more the company makes the more we can spend on the social needs of our people."

The result has capped a stellar five-year financial turnaround for the tribe, which came close to bankruptcy in 2001.

The surprise resignation of chief executive Steve Murray from the tribe's financial arm, Tainui Group Holdings, was not expected to disrupt momentum, Mr Morgan said.

It is understood Mr Murray has left to join international business and technology solutions provider EDS.

Mr Morgan would not be drawn on negotiations with the Crown over the Waikato River.

The Weekend Herald reported that the Government was close to a deal to return the river, New Zealand's longest, to Maori claimants.

The river was excluded from the tribe's 1995 settlement.