Taxpayers 'won't have to cough up extra' for Treelord deal

Michael Cullen

Treaty Negotiations Minister Michael Cullen says there won't be much change out of a half-billion-dollar Treelord settlement.

But it's a deal taxpayers won't have to cough up extra money to pay for.

In a first for Treaty negotiations, after 19 years of contention about how to divide forest assets in and around the Kaingaroa forest, seven iwi in the Central North Island iwi Collective have been in intense negotiations with one another since February, putting together a deal they hope the Government will agree to.

Dr Cullen was at Little Waihi yesterday, on the shores of Lake Taupo, where Ngati Tuwharetoa paramount chief Tumu te Heuheu handed over the collective's proposal for settlement.

Dr Cullen said half the $500 million settlement, $248 million, had been building up in accumulated rentals from crown forest licences since 1989 - when court action decided Maori were the rightful owners.

Add to that figure carbon credits and the $170 million to $190 million estimated value of 170,000ha of land and the value of the deal ratchets up.

But while it would be a hit on the Government's assets, there would be no new investments in tax needed to pay for the deal - the only cash that would move was the accumulated rentals, a Government spokesperson said.

Under the proposal, collective iwi want 90 per cent of land across nine forests.

The remaining 10 per cent would be retained by the Crown for future settlements of iwi outside the collective.

Once those deals are cut, any balance will return to the iwi collective.

However, nothing in the proposal was a done deal, Dr Cullen said. Whether 90 per cent was an acceptable proportion for the collective to receive needed to be looked at, as did allocations of assets within the collective.

"Obviously the Crown will want to be satisfied that the allocation in the governance structure is going to deliver fairness and justice across the iwi involved - in other words, there is a risk that things could unravel."

Last year, a Waitangi Tribunal report slammed the Government's process in not dealing with overlapping interests as it signed a 50,000ha Kaingaroa forest deal with Te Pumautanga o Te Arawa.

Dr Cullen conceded a change of approach was needed. "But the one size fits all model, I think it's exhausted its potential."

Collective spokesman Tamati Kruger was in an upbeat mood and wanted the deal sorted out by Matariki, the Maori New Year in July, before the election and any possible change of Government.