At the start of the Tribunal’s inquiry into Wai 22, the Muriwhenua claim on the lands and fisheries of the Muriwhenua tribes of the Far North, senior counsel for the claimants, Mr W D Baragwanath QC, made submissions concerning the State-Owned Enterprises Bill 1986. Mr Baragwanath argued that that the relief sought by the claimants would likely be prejudiced by the enactment of the Bill because land held by the Crown would be transferred to new State-owned corporations and thus cease to be available for Treaty settlements. These submissions were not disputed by counsel acting for various Government departments.
Because the Bill was due for its third reading, the Tribunal, consisting of Chief Judge Eddie Durie (presiding), Bishop Manuhuia Bennett, Sir Monita Delamere, Professor Keith Sorrenson, Georgina Te Heuheu, and Bill Wilson, considered the issue warranted the immediate release of an interim report.
In the report, the Tribunal found that the claimants were likely to be prejudicially affected by the Bill and recommended that, while the Muriwhenua inquiry was still current, the Crown should decline to transfer lands within the traditional territories of the iwi involved to any State-owned corporations.
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 |
