Compromise on iwi recognition

By RUTH BERRY political reporter

Two groups wanting to be recognised as iwi under the Maori Fisheries Bill will be able to control their own assets but won't be listed as iwi, under a compromise solution made public yesterday.

The parliamentary select committee considering the bill tabled its report late yesterday. Fisheries Minister David Benson-Pope has confirmed the Government will support the committee's recommendations.

The committee has found that Northland-based Ngati Hine and Mahia-based Rongomaiwahine should effectively be able to be treated as if they were iwi when it comes to the management of assets.

It removes the "veto" right of adjacent or contiguous iwi to prevent those groups being recognised as iwi for the purposes of the bill.

The veto right was one of the requirements insisted on by the Waitangi Fisheries Commission for recognition of iwi status.

Te Runanga A Iwi O Ngapuhi has to date refused to recognise Ngati Hine's desire to be recognised as an iwi under the bill. The Kahungunu Trust Board has similarly opposed Rongomaiwahine's petitions.

Both groups, until now representing the largest and third-largest iwi populations in the country, stand to lose millions of dollars if the two groups are given the ability to split off to manage their own assets.

The commission has spent 14 years trying to reach agreement on how to allocate $700 million in fisheries assets and quota and has repeatedly warned any changes to the bill risk unravelling the settlement.

But the committee found the evidence put forward by Ngati Hine and Rongomaiwahine was compelling.

Until recently the committee intended to recognise the iwi status of the two groups immediately and to list them as iwi in the schedule of the bill.

The entire plan caused a furore among opponents, with Kahungunu board chairman Ngahiwi Tomoana and Ngapuhi runanga chairman Sonny Tau last week both warning it would open a Pandora's box.

Together with the commission, they made their concerns known to the Government, triggering what the committee will label a compromise.

Under the new plan the two groups will instead be included under the Ngapuhi and Kahungunu confederation of tribal groups.

But they will be given a five-year period within which to "deaggregate" the assets without the veto impediment.

New Zealand First MP and Ngati Hine tribal member Pita Paraone sat on the committee and said last night Ngati Hine was pleased with the report. It gave Ngati Hine time to encourage members to identify as such in the 2006 Census, enabling it to establish the true extent of its population.

Population size is a key component of the allocation model and the commission has used the 2001 Census to determine the size of each group.

But most Ngati Hine members were classed as Ngapuhi in the last Census.

If it had been recognised immediately as an iwi and the commission allocated according to the last Census, Ngati Hine would have got few assets.

Mr Paraone said the outcome was the best possible for Ngati Hine. Rongomaiwahine lawyer Donna Hall welcomed the report.