Row over lakes hinges on sale

By AUDREY YOUNG & ANNE BESTON


The Government and the Opposition battled in Parliament yesterday over historic detail on the Rotorua lakes and whether Maori had sold them to the Crown in a 1922 deal.

That factor is crucial to the public relations war both are waging over a new deal 82 years later.

National claims the lakes were sold in 1922 in an honourable agreement with Te Arawa and therefore there can be no justification to vest the title of the 13 lakes in the tribe.

Treaty Negotiations Minister Margaret Wilson said there was no sale and the tribe was paid an annuity so it would not take legal action.

The new deal, vesting ownership and co-management rights of the lakebed in the tribe and awarding $10 million compensation, is to be initialled on Friday before the iwi sets out to get agreement.

National began its offensive yesterday on three fronts, with leader Don Brash taking on Prime Minister Helen Clark, deputy Gerry Brownlee taking on Ms Wilson and conservation spokesman Simon Power taking on Conservation Minister Chris Carter.

Helen Clark dismissed a claim by Dr Brash that Te Arawa had never made a claim to the ownership of the lakes - a claim based on 2001 news reports that the Arawa Maori Trust Board chairman at the time, Arapeta Tahana, was surprised that the offer arrived on his desk before negotiations had begun.

Helen Clark said the tribe's statement of claim said that and was consistent with a policy precedent set by National in 1992 when it vested title to Lake Taupo in Tuwharetoa.

Ms Wilson said the Crown had always said it owned the lakes and that had been contested "and continued to be contested".

"There has always been a sense of genuine grievance that it was not an agreement done with the utmost good faith that one would require from a treaty partner."

Act MP Stephen Franks suggested the Government had been negotiating a deal on the air space rights over the lakes and tabled an Arawa trust board newsletter of last December saying the offer included "an agreement for a high-level relationship agreement between Te Arawa and the Crown in relation to the air space and water column above the lakebeds".

A spokeswoman for Ms Wilson said ownership of air space and water had never been on the table and the deal specified they remained in the ownership of the Crown, with the lakebed to be in the ownership of Te Arawa.

Act MP Ken Shirley tried to show the Government was inconsistent over the ownership of lakebeds and the foreshore, which it plans to entrench in statute as belonging to the Crown.

United Future leader Peter Dunne said if the 1922 deal was a full and final one, what prevented another settlement being sought in another 82 years.

Mr Carter pointed to a similar deal negotiated over Lake Taupo by National's former Treaty Negotiations Minister Sir Douglas Graham and said it was a sad day when National "turns its back" on his contribution.

Sir Douglas could not be contacted but former National MP for Rotorua Paul East said what might be satisfactory for Wanaka, Queenstown or Taupo might not be for Rotorua.

The Government goes into talks with Tuwharetoa today over airspace rights above Lake Taupo.