Crown and Tainui seal river agreement

Tainui and the Crown will jointly govern, restore and protect the Waikato River under the terms of a Treaty of Waitangi claim settlement enacted by Parliament yesterday.

The public galleries of the debating chamber were packed with iwi members and the Maori King, Tuheitia, was seated beside Speaker Lockwood Smith as the Waikato-Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Bill was passed on a voice vote.

It had cross-party support with the exception of the Act Party.

It was an emotional Nanaia Mahuta who closed debate at the final reading of Tainui's Waikato River settlement yesterday.

Her late father, Sir Robert Mahuta, led Maoridom in negotiating the ground-breaking $170 million Raupatu settlement in 1995, and her mother, Lady Raiha, led these negotiations. However, she died just before seeing her deal make it into legislation.

In front of her infant son, her husband, King Tuheitia and the gallery of tribal members who had travelled to Wellington by bus, the MP outlined Labour's support for the legislation.

She urged the Government to hurry along settlement with Ngati Maniapoto, whose

Waipa River is the major tributary to the Waikato - its health could not improve while the Waipa flowed unchecked and unimproved into the country's biggest waterway.

However, as she closed her speech, Ms Mahuta's voice cracked and tears came as she spoke of her parents' combined contribution to the tribe.

"Not many children get a chance to acknowledge the achievements of both their parents in this house ... I've done so."

Act MP David Garrett criticised the deal as undemocratic as well as wrongly conferring on Waikato/Tainui greater rights than non-Maori have. The Treaty didn't envision co-management or equal partnership when it was signed - that was an invention of the 1990s, he said.

"We believe the Crown and this House are committing another major [Treaty] breach by putting the Waikato River under co-governance."

That drew a rebuke from Hamilton East MP David Bennett, who said his constituents were ready to support the newly created Waikato River Authority, where co-management decisions will be made.

Its work begins once the Government and iwi select authority members.

WAIKATO TAINUI

1995 Raupatu Settlement:
* Dealt specifically with land confiscation suffered in the 1860s.
* Tribe lost 1.2 million acres.
* It received $170 million.
* The issue of loss of river rights was put aside in 1995 to be dealt with at a later date.

Waikato River Settlement
Yesterday: First Crown/iwi co-management deal:
* Puts cleaning the river at the heart of legislation.
* Waikato River Authority will establish clean-up strategy.
* The Crown establishes contestable $210 million river cleaning fund.
* Tainui receive $50 million for economic development, $20 million for Endowed College, $1 million a year for 30 years to fund its participation in co-management.