Urgent talks on land dispute
More arrests as Ihumātao protesters cleared from road
The Auckland Council wants to set up an urgent meeting with all parties connected to the Ihumãtao land dispute.
With protest numbers growing, and no sign of the standoff easing near a historic reserve at Mangere, councillors yesterday unanimously agreed to try to get all interested groups around the table to try to find a resolution. Protesters have now been in a standoff with the police at Ihumãtao for three days.
Auckland city councillor Efeso Collins described the police response as completely over the top.
“It feels like our over-stretched police force are being used as almost a private security firm for a group of foreign investors.
“This does not have a place in my ward.”
Seven people were arrested yesterday on the road near Ihumātao as Auckland Council called for meetings to defuse tensions over the disputed lands.
Superintendent Jill Rogers said police were notified a person had chained themselves to a van on George Bolt Memorial Dr (SH 20A), with several others linking arms to block all northbound lanes.
Police cleared them from the road. Three men and four women, aged between 20 and 26 years old, were last night in custody, Rogers said. The arrests came after six other arrests for what police on Tuesday called “reckless and dangerous” behaviour.
Auckland Council wants all parties involved with the disputed lands at Ihumātao to get around the table to avoid “another Bastion Point”.
The land in the south Auckland suburb of Māngere is owned by Fletcher Building and is slated for development of 480 houses, with the agreement of local iwi.
But a group called SOUL — Save Our Unique Landscape — has been occupying the historic site for several years, saying it should be made a public space.
Some of the protesters — or protectors, as they call themselves — are mana whenua, including SOUL leader Pania Newton. She says the 34ha of land near the sacred Ōtuataua Stonefields Reserve was unjustly confiscated from mana whenua in 1863.
But elders from local mana whenua Te Kawerau ā Maki, Te Ākitai Waiohua, and Tainui have sided with Fletcher in the dispute and asked protesters to leave.
. . . so if we come in over the top it really would be undermining the local iwi. Jacinda Ardern
There are scores of police at the scene, leading to fears the situation could become a “second Bastion Point”.
Police said they had remained “to allow Fletcher Building contractors to go about their lawful business and to prevent any breaches of the peace”.
Councillor Cathy Casey raised an extraordinary item in the council’s Governing Body meeting yesterday, calling for Mayor Phil Goff to hold a meeting between all parties — including iwi claiming mana whenua status, the council, the Māngere-Otahuhu local board, the Crown and anyone else affected — to “explore all partnering opportunities that will bring an end to this lengthy dispute”.
She hoped the move would avert “a situation that could escalate as Bastion Point did”.
The item was passed unanimously and will be confirmed at the next meeting in August.
But councillor Penny Hulse cautioned councillors to respect the Treaty settlement process the local iwi, Te Kawerau a¯ Maki, had gone through.
On Wednesday Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the Government would not intervene in the dispute, but it was “falling on the side of local iwi and their position.
“They are not the ones leading the protest here, so if we come in over the top it really would be undermining the local iwi in this case.”