An urgent hearing into processes the Crown used in the establishment of Tuhoronuku and the Ngapuhi Treaty of Waitangi settlement led to a busload of Ngapuhi hapu members travelling from Kawakawa to Wellington.
The Waitangi Tribunal hearing, held on Wednesday and Thursday, comes after a series of conferences and hearings were held looking into the Ngapuhi settlement. At a two-day Waitangi Tribunal judicial conference in June last year, submissions were made as part of an application for an urgent hearing by key groups opposing Tuhoronuku, the group whose mandate to negotiate Ngapuhi settlements was recognised last year by the Crown.
Pita Tipene, co-chairman of Te Kotahitanga, which opposes the Tuhoronuku mandate, said the tribunal found the Crown had been unfair in recognising the Tuhoronuku mandate. "I think the actual words of the paper was that the Crown had 'picked a winner right from the start to the detriment of everybody else'."
Following the judicial conference last June, a two-day urgency hearing was held in December. Mr Tipene said after information a judge asked to be disclosed by the Crown was not presented in December, the tribunal called for another two-day hearing, which took place on Wednesday and Thursday.
The hearing had involved tribunal and hapu lawyers questioning the new information revealed by the Crown. "Basically, the Crown had to put all the letters that had been written to the minister, letters that had been written by Tuhoronuku, information that had been exchanged by Tuhoronuku and the Crown, on the table. That's been divulged now so that has to be the focus of the questions that the lawyers put to Crown representatives."