Urban Maori, Fisheries Commission agree to work together after court ruling

Wednesday 20th July 2016

National Urban Māori representative John Tamihere says the group wants to work with Te Ohu Kaimoana, the Māori Fisheries Commission, after a ruling by Wellington's High Court that the commission's appointment of iwi-affiliated directors to the board of a trust set up for urban Māori was incorrect.

The judgment, delivered on Friday, meant the National Urban Māori Authority (NUMA) and Te Waipareira Trust succeeded in their claim over the $20 million Te Putea Whakatupu Trust, and all directors of the trust must represent Māori who are not affiliated with an iwi.

The trust was set up under the 2004 Māori Fisheries Act as part of the settlement of Māori fishing rights claims to provide for urban Māori who don't benefit from iwi-based settlements because they don't have an active association with a tribe.

Te Ohu Kaimoana said in a statement that it welcomed the judgment, which "clarifies legislative ambiguity relating to the criteria for appointment of directors and it will follow the court's interpretation when making future appointments."

"Te Ohu will look at how it will re-engage with urban Māori groups in respect of the proposed changes and these issues will be worked through in the coming weeks," it said.

Justice Simon France also ruled that while urban Māori weren't given enough say on proposed changes to the trust in 2015, a resolution to increase the trust's directors to five from three wouldn't be quashed, and could be passed on to the Minister for Primary Industries for consideration.

Tamihere, who was the only one of the trust's three directors affiliated with urban Māori, said the commission had been given "quite clear and compelling directions" by the court, and urban Māori were looking to make progress.

"The chair of the National Urban Māori Authority has reached out to the Fisheries Commission to say look, on the back of this judgment do you want to get around the table and have a discussion about how we proceed to appoint five directors," Tamihere said. "I've dealt with people that have ground down others in their communities to seize control of the chequebook and so they endeavour to use the same methodology when you upgrade the conversation and those tools don't really work here. We don't know whether that will be games again as usual or whether there might be a good discussion on hand."

Tamihere said he wasn't sure whether Te Ohu Kaimoana would try to appeal the court's decision, but the commission ran the risk of getting a worse result if they did.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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