The Hauraki Settlement: Apologising For The Past While Repeating It!
I read Wanda Brljevich’s open letter on behalf of Ngāti Huarere ki Whangapoua with real dismay. (The Informer, 2 June, p 5)
Here is an iwi who descend from Tamatekapua, captain of the Te Arawa waka, and who have kept ahi kā in Hauraki for close to seven centuries. Yet the Crown has folded their Wai 475 claim into the Hauraki settlement against their clearly stated wishes, vesting their ancestral lands, wāhi tapu and urupā in six other iwi never given authority to speak for them.
What disappoints me most is how easily this happened. The Crown’s own policy says it cannot confer a mandate – yet it effectively did. And the Waitangi Tribunal’s recommendations were simply set aside. Reconciliation built on coercion is no reconciliation at all.
There is a way forward. The Crown should carve Wai 475 out of the Hauraki Deed of Settlement and negotiate directly with Ngāti Huarere ki Whangamatā. No iwi’s redress should vest in another without consent. Where mandate is disputed, an independent body should settle it before legislation proceeds.
It is not too late to get this one right.
Patrick Kerr, Whangamatā
A TALE OF TWO SHARK BITES
Whitianga residents woke on the morning of 14 February 2023 to find Shark Gabrielle had taken a dramatic bite out of Buffalo Beach to the edge of the road. The second bite has been out of our wallets and has happened in excruciatingly slow motion.
Your grandfather and mine would have got hold of some drainage pipe, located suitable rocks and backfill, a digger and a truck, checked out the the existing rock wall then simply got on with extending it and fixing the footpath.
Not these days!
It took nearly a year to prepare engineering reports and make the necessary resource consent applications to both WRC and TCDC. Almost another year passed before both consents were granted in late 2024.
Nearly two years to get to this stage, still no actual remedial work – cost approximately $140,000!
Council does have an excuse of course – it must “go through the same resource consent process as a private individual”. Is this at all ironic?
The actual work took a couple of months and cost about $110,000. What did it involve? Basically, some drainage pipes, suitable rocks and backfill and fixing the footpath. Oh, and also some landscaping.
We are now being asked to take part
in a survey on how to “simplify local government”. A good start would be to appoint a powerful Commissioner of Common Sense to oversee all local government activities.
Helen Vivian, Wharekaho
Land of the cones
It has been announced that $85 million has been earmarked for our region for roading upgrades and maintenance. That’s great. If they could reduce the number of road cones and the cost of them, which is out of control, we would have so much more of that money to actually put into the upgrades and repairs.
Mervyn Gregory, Whitianga
