Assets sales cutting future settlements
Tuesday, 21st November, 2011
Labour's Hauraki-Waikato candidate is warning that state asset sales will diminish the Crown's ability to make settle treaty claims.
Nanaia Mahuta says little has changed since the 1980s when the New Zealand Maori Council, Muriwhenua, Waikato Tainui and others challenged the sale of farms, forests and fisheries because the Crown could not prove clear title to many of the assets.
She says the sale of shares in the country's power generation companies is enmeshed in arguments about ownership of water rights and sub-surface resources, which still aren't resolved.
“If you’re going down a treaty settlement perspective, selling state assets gives the government no opportunity to look for some cooperative ventures and some innovative treaty settlement solutions and so for that reason again I would say hold on to the assets and let’s ensure, in regard to the greater range of rights and interests that Maori have through the treaty settlement process, the government should have a wide enough scope to be innovative around its reduced packages,” she says.
Ms Mahuta says iwi who say they support National's asset sell-off plans because they want to buy shares don't actually have the financial resources to take part in any meaningful way.
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