Tuhoe return to negotiating table

Photo / Greg Bowker

Tuhoe and the Government are back at the negotiating table, five months after a deal ground to a halt over the ownership of Te Urewera National Park.

Government officials and tribal negotiators met last Friday to discuss the specifics about how the groups can push forward towards settlement.

In May, Prime Minister John Key scuttled a deal which would have seen the park returned to Tuhoe ownership. The tribe's chief negotiator Tamati Kruger said at the time that ownership was a bottom line for the iwi but that wasn't acceptable to Mr Key.

Yesterday, Treaty Negotiations Minister Christopher Finlayson was asked whether there was a middle way forward between the two positions.

"What I'm going to do is negotiate with the iwi, which is the approach I take to all negotiations, and I'll let you know in due course," he said.

Since the breakdown, negotiations of any substance had stopped although the groups continued talking. Sources said these meetings were largely about making sure that communication didn't break down entirely.

A new, agreed set of media talking points between the two parties says that there is a desire to settle.

Te Urewera remains the deal breaker and while fee simple ownership of Te Urewera is out, Tuhoe's re-engagement points to a willingness to find some creative solution. The park, which Tuhoe considers its homeland, was only one part of the old settlement.

A full financial offer was worth $120 million, $66 million of which would have been taken as cash, while the remaining $54 million would be taken as paid from the tribe's share of its the multi-iwi Central North Island Forests or Treelords deal in 2008.

The other major negotiation plank is the tribe's push for mana motuhake, a form of self-government under which it would be responsible for providing government services.

The Herald understands that for the most part while detailed work still needs to be done on the last two components, the broad outline of financial redress and the mana motuhake proposals are likely to remain unchanged.