Settlement could trump court ruling

If the Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua settlement is passed as scheduled next week, then years of work to secure a Supreme Court verdict could have been for nothing.

Just this week, the Supreme Court ruled on a case brought by the Wairarapa Moana Incorporation – a group affiliated to the people of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa.

After years of complicated legal debate, the country’s top court ruled in favour of Wairarapa Moana’s claim that it could argue for land at the Maraetai Power Station in Waikato to be given to them.

The land in question was promised to Wairarapa Māori in 1896, as compensation for the Crown’s forced takeover of Lake noke in the Wairarapa.

The Maraetai Power Station land sits in Pouākani, Waikato, out of the rohe of Rangitāne and Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa. It is the rohe of Raukawa and Ngāti Tūwharetoa.

The Supreme Court ruled that the Waitangi Tribunal should consider the application of Wairarapa Moana ‘‘afresh’’, in its bid to have the land at Pouākani given to them as promised.

The Pouākani land is currently owned by Mercury Energy, a stateowned enterprise.

But the ruling came with a caveat. If the Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua Settlement Bill was to pass, it would put an end to the argument about Pouākani.

Treaty claims settlements are passed as laws with the proviso that ‘‘the historical claims are settled’’.

Treaty Negotiations Minister Andrew Little said yesterday he was yet to make up his mind about whether to halt the passage of the Treaty settlement, which was scheduled for its third reading next week – just before Parliament heads off for a summer holiday.

‘‘I’m still going through the decision, and I’m still awaiting advice from Te Arawhiti [the Office for Māori-Crown Relations],’’ he said.

The Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa settlement has been particularly controversial.

In May, the Green Party made the unusual decision to abstain from voting on the settlement after the Waitangi Tribunal urged the Crown to pause the settlement.

Little said the overlapping interests and multiple iwi involved in the settlement had complicated it.

‘‘I’m still going through the decision, and I’m still awaiting advice from Te Arawhiti [the Office for Māori-Crown Relations].’’ Andrew Little Treaty Negotiations Minister