Kaitaia Airport deal for Ngati Kahu and Ngai Takoto

Police arrive to inspect the runway at Kaitaia Airport during an occupation by Ngati Kahu. Photo: Edward Rooney

Ngati Kahu and Ngai Takoto have each been offered the right to buy 50 per cent of Kaitaia Airport in their respective Treaty of Waitangi settlements.

But if Ngati Kahu does not settle with the Crown within three years, 100 per cent will be offered to Ngai Takoto, Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson told Parliament this morning.

It comes as a group of protesters marched on Kaitaia Airport yesterday and occupied land at the airfield. The protest has prevented flights coming into or out of Kaitaia.

Mr Finlayson described the Ngati Kahu members occupying the airport as "miscreants" undertaking "oafish behaviour" and that it should not be seen as Ngati Kahu occupying the airport.

The offer for the airport is conditional on the land remaining an airport and the right to purchase takes effect in three years.

"If Ngati Kahu have not concluded a treaty settlement within three years of Ngai Takoto settlement date, around December 2018, then Ngai Takoto will have the sole right to purchase the property," Mr Finlayson said during debate on four northern settlements: Ngati Kuri, Te Aupouri, Ngai Takoto and Te Rarawa.

"This approach was taken because the Crown had to balance the interests of both iwi while ensuring certainty about the future of the airport."

Ngati Kahu had not been locked out negotiations, he said, and he hoped Ngati Kahu would get involved in negotiations soon.

He hoped Ngati Kahu were not going to be criticised for occupying the airport, Mr Finlayson said.

"It's not. There are a few miscreants who are doing it. They don't reflect Ngati Kahu. I hope that the day will come very soon when the miscreants will get lost and Ngati Kahu negotiators, be they the current ones or new ones, will sit down with the Crown and sort out these arrangements.

"There is no place for this kind of oafish behaviour, and I say no more than that because it is a matter for the police. It is an operational matter and politicians don't get involved in operational matters."

Both Ngai Takoto and Ngati Kahu would be involved in the renegotiating lease arrangements for the airport with Far North Holdings Ltd, the commercial arm of the Far North District Council.