A series of claims from the five most northerly tribes from the North Cape, seeking amongst other things the return to them of large areas of Crown land. Senior counsel for the claimants, Mr W D Baragwanath QC, made preliminary submissions that compelled the Tribunal to immediately respond in the form of an interim report to the Minister of Maori Affairs.
Counsel submitted that the relief sought by the claimants is, or is likely to be, prejudiced by the enactment of the State-Owned Enterprises Bill, that such prejudice is contrary to the principles of the Treaty, and that the claimants should be granted relief in the form of some exemptions from the Bill or other amelioration of the terms of the Bill. The Tribunal had been informed that the Bill could pass to a third reading in the second week of December, 1986.
When invited to reply to Mr Baragwanath’s preliminary submissions, none of the counsel for various Government departments who appeared before the Tribunal objected to the making of those submissions or disputed their correctness.
The Tribunal considered the claimants were likely to be prejudicially affected by the Bill.
‘The policy proposed in the State-Owned Enterprises Bill involves a transfer of Crown land to the Forestry Corporation, the Land Corporation, and other corporations. It will then cease to be Crown land. Although it appears Ministers will retain a power of direction to the proposed corporations, that power, it seems to us, is likely to be limited and insufficiently wide to enable the return of Crown land pursuant to a recommendation of this Tribunal, or might otherwise involve claimants in an additional adversary. Nor, it seems, would the Bill necessarily prevent the alienation of lands that did not provide reasonable economic return.’
The Waitangi Tribunal |
