Govt mum after talks on Ihuma¯ tao

The Minister of Finance is staying tight-lipped about a meeting with Fletcher over the stalemate at Ihuma¯tao. Grant Robertson met representatives of Fletcher Building, which owns the contested South Auckland site, on Friday at the Beehive.

That followed Ma¯ori King Tu¯heitia saying last week that mana whenua had reached a unified decision that they wanted the land returned.

Robertson has declined to give further details about the meeting — other than saying the developer asked for it — and yesterday still wouldn’t say what had been said.

“I think, with respect to Fletchers, I’m going to leave that inside the meeting. They were just talking about some of the options they see going forward from here,” he said.

“I see the Government’s role as one where we just play a construction role in helping find a resolution.”

Asked if Fletcher had asked for anything, he said: “No. They’re just looking for a way forward.”

Fletcher has declined repeated requests for comment — but earlier said it was disappointed to not have been part of talks so far and wanted urgent meetings with all involved.

While it’s not clear what solutions are on the table, the situation could be resolved in several ways:

● The Government or WaikatoTainui iwi could buy the land from Fletcher to return to mana whenua.

● The Government could swap some land it owns with the developer, rather than outright buying it.

● The iwi could swap land with Fletcher to have Ihuma¯tao returned.

King Tu¯ heitia last week said K¯ıngitanga had conveyed the views of mana whenua to the Government and urged it to negotiate with the Fletcher for the “return of Ihuma¯tao to its rightful owners”.

Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters last week said there was an “extraordinarily high benchmark” for the Government to get involved in the situation — and has raised concerns that a Government buyback could reopen settled Treaty claims.

That worry has also been raised by the National Party, which has called for the Government to “butt out” of the situation.

But Robertson has said the Government has “absolutely no intention of reopening full and final settlements”.

King Tu¯heitia has been acting as an intermediary in the stalemate between Ihuma¯tao’s iwi authority — which supports a planned development by Fletcher on the site — and those opposing it, led by Pania Newton and Save Our Unique Landscape (Soul) — who occupied the land.

The land was sold to the developer in 2016 after being designated a Special Housing Area. It has been the subject of controversy since.