PM tight-lipped on Ihuma¯tao deal
Ardern says any solution won’t undermine Treaty
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is staying tightlipped on whether Cabinet has agreed to a solution to the long-running Ihuma¯tao land dispute.
But she did reveal any solution the Government does announce would not undermine the Treaty process previously agreed to by those involved.
“We just can’t do that; it would be an act of bad faith for all other iwi and Treaty partners.”
RNZ reported that an initial deal was expected to go before Cabinet yesterday — the last Cabinet meeting of the year.
That deal, according to those reports, is for the Government to buy the land from Fletcher Building.
This is something the Opposition vehemently opposes.
“The Ihuma¯tao situation is a problem of Jacinda Ardern’s own making, and taxpayers should not be bailing her out,” National leader Judith Collins said.
“What a terrible signal this sends agitators who decide to disregard the legally binding treaty settlement process,” Act leader David Seymour said.
But when pressed on the issue at her post-Cabinet media conference yesterday, Ardern gave little away.
“When we have any announcements from Cabinet, we’ll be making [those] at the appropriate time.”
She also wouldn’t say whether the
issue had gone before Cabinet yesterday as it’s her “general preference” not to discuss issues talked about by ministers unless she is making an announcement.
“There will be a time and a place when we are ready to make announcements — but today is not that day.”
Whatever the outcome of Cabinet’s decisions, it’s going to be highly contentious.
Protesters, led by Save Our Unique Landscape (Soul), have been lobbying the Government to return the land they say has important historical meaning to Ma¯ori, to mana whenua.
But the land was legally sold to Fletcher Building in 2016. It had planned to build more than 400 homes on the land.
But in July last year, Ardern announced any building work which was scheduled to take place on the land would be halted until the dispute was resolved.
Since then, however, the Government has made no public comment as to how it planned to resolve the issue.
“Our job is to make sure that when we’re in a position to announce something with some fidelity, that’s what we’ll do — but I’m not going to speculate in the meantime,” Ardern said.