KEY POINTS:
Accusations of bias have been levelled at a judge who excused herself from a Waitangi Tribunal inquiry after claimants investigated her whakapapa (ancestral) links to the region.
Judge Stephanie Milroy has stepped down after four years as presiding officer of the East Coast inquiry, which ranges from Potaka
near East Cape to the Turanganui River in Gisborne.
Lawyer Darrell Naden acts for claimant groups Ruawaipu, Uepohatu and Te Aitanga a Hauiti, who have been at loggerheads with Te Runanga o Ngati Porou, which represents Ngati Porou hapu, through much of the inquiry.
At the heart of the dispute is whether the runanga has exclusive mandate over the area or whether Mr Naden's claimants have rights.
While the tribunal inquiry - which examines only the historical grievances and cannot settle claims financially- has been in train since 2004, this year the runanga entered into direct negotiations with the Crown to negotiate what could be a multimillion deal for the region.
Those negotiations have exacerbated the tension between the groups.
Mr Naden said it was unbelievable that Judge Milroy did not inform claimants of five landblocks she had interests in, through her Ngati Porou connections, when they became apparent.
In a letter to Judge Carrie Wainwright, the tribunal's acting chairwoman, Judge Milroy said that from the outset she had identified her Ngati Porou affiliations but her primary affiliations lay with Tuhoe and Te Arawa. "My knowledge of these [Ngati Porou] whakapapa connections was and is very limited and I have no idea how close my whakapapa connections are to any of the claimants."
But in 2005, as a result of growing interest by whanau members in their more distant connections, the Milroy-Fabling Whanau Trust was constituted, Judge Milroy said.
The trust has interests in five landblocks which are within the inquiry boundary.
The trust held a 4.6 per cent shareholding in one of the five landblocks and the others amounted to about one-tenth of a per cent or less.
Judge Milroy said she had not received any money from the shares and was not registered with Te Runanga o Ngati Porou. But there was a "future possibility that the trust might benefit from a settlement", a situation that did not exist at the start of the inquiry.
"In my view these changes do not at present give rise to the reasonable apprehension of bias, but the future is fraught with such possibility. In these circumstances I consider it prudent to recuse myself from the inquiry."
Mr Naden said he started investigations two months ago to gauge the extent of the judge's links to Ngati Porou. If those investigations had not occurred the judge would "have stayed quiet", he said.
He is now weighing whether to ask for a review of the judge's past decisions, including the tribunal decision not to interfere in the runanga and Crown negotiations.
"There's this apparent bias which has undermined the process. She's made a string of decisions we think need to be re-looked at. There are going to be some major consequences."
