Tuhoe talk to Goff over action on raids

Tamati Kruger. Photo / Greg Bowker

Tuhoe have met Labour Party leader Phil Goff to brief him about the tribe's settlement negotiations and also to discuss the impact of the police "Operation 8" raids in Ruatoki, south of Whakatane, in 2007.

Iwi leaders have been meeting politicians across the spectrum as they try to build support for a settlement which could result in them becoming owners of Te Urewera National Park.

Negotiator Tamati Kruger said he met Mr Goff and outlined Tuhoe's position on its settlement, which could be worth $135 million.

But Mr Kruger also used the meeting as an opportunity to tell Mr Goff that the tribe is considering civil action against the police and Crown for the way the raids were conducted, specifically in the Ruatoki community.

Tuhoe have alleged civil rights abuses against those not arrested, including strip searches, illegal detention, having homes trashed and being stopped at illegal roadblocks.

It was important that the Labour leader was given fair warning of Tuhoe's intentions, as Mr Goff was a Cabinet minister in Helen Clark's Government, which was in power when the raids occurred in October 2007, Mr Kruger said.

"What he said to me was they acted upon the advice of [Police Commissioner] Howard Broad. Phil Goff is not going to say 'yes, we were wrong'. What he is going to say is 'well, we did what our most senior official told us to do'.

"The sense I got in that room is the same sense I've got in most of my conversations with politicians, whether they are National, Greens, Maori Party or Labour - is that it was a mistake, because if this whole thing is true, the prosecutions would have taken place and the perpetrators would have been in jail in less than a year."

Mr Goff confirmed the pair had met.

Asked if he thought the raids were a mistake, Mr Goff said only the judicial process would be able to sort that out.

He said Mr Broad had acknowledged that there were aspects of the raids which could have been completed differently, but police had a job to do.

"I don't believe that the police acted in bad faith. I think they acted on the information that had been given to them."

Extensive suppression orders surround the Operation 8 case.