KEY POINTS:
Tainui's claim to own the water in the Waikato River appears to be doomed.
Treaty Negotiations Minister Mark Burton says New Zealand law does not provide for the ownership of water in rivers and lakes.
Mr Burton was responding to comments by Tainui negotiator Tuku Morgan, who said this week water ownership was the stumbling block to a settlement of the river claim.
The revelation that water ownership is being demanded has shocked major river water users, the Waikato Times reported today.
The tribe has been negotiating with the Government to settle the river claim since 2005. The issue was set aside from its Raupatu deal, struck in 1995.
Mr Morgan said Tainui did not want to separate the water from the river, from the bed or from its banks.
He said that had always been Tainui's stance, and the issue was shaping up to be as controversial as the foreshore and seabed.
Mr Burton said in a statement details of the Waikato River negotiations were confidential, though progress to date had been positive.
"The Crown is negotiating to settle Waikato-Tainui's historical river claims in a way that both recognised Wakiato-Tainui's strong spiritual, cultural and physical interests in the river and is consistent with New Zealand law, which does not provide for ownership of water in rivers and lakes," he said.
- NZPA
