Wananga accuses Crown of breaching treaty claim

The Government has been accused of breaching a Treaty of Waitangi settlement over its treatment of the embattled Te Wananga O Aotearoa.

The Aotearoa Institute, the wananga's parent body, filed a claim in the Waitangi Tribunal yesterday alleging that the Crown had failed to honour part of a 1998 treaty settlement reached between the Crown and the wananga.

Institute spokesman Harold Maniapoto said yesterday that the Government had failed to provide a $20 million suspensory loan, which was to have been paid last year on top of $40 million already paid to the wananga.

"The Crown has made a mockery of the Treaty of Waitangi and the principle of partnership and is squarely to blame for the financial predicament and negative publicity that has hounded the wananga this year," he said.

In 1998, the wananga, with Te Wananga o Raukawa and Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi, lodged a claim alleging the Crown had failed to fund wananga equitably compared with other tertiary education providers.

The tribunal agreed and recommended a one-off payment to all wananga to cover the cost of establishment, and further funding to bring the wananga up to the standard of other organisations.

Included in the Aotearoa wananga's settlement was a $20 million suspensory loan to be paid from last year, which would become capital funding if it met Education Ministry requirements.

Mr Maniapoto said non-payment of the suspensory loan caused the wananga's financial crisis and compelled it to accept the appointment of a crown manager, a situation he said was costing it about $90,000 a month.

He said he was confident that advice from the institute's lawyers would show the Government had failed to honour its part of the settlement.

Last month, Education Minister Trevor Mallard came under fire from opposition MPs in Parliament for approving payments of millions of dollars to the wananga despite it exceeding a Pakeha number requirement.

Mr Mallard said because the wananga exceeded the 6400 Maori student numbers required by the deed, enrolling 20,400, it would have been "unreasonable" not to make the payments.

Mr Maniapoto said a date for hearing the claim was expected in the next two weeks.

The background

* Te Wananga O Aotearoa was promised a $20 million suspensory loan from the Government as part of a 1998 Treaty of Waitangi settlement.

* The wananga says the Government's failure to pay caused its financial problems. It has now filed a breach of settlement claim.

* The Government has said it held back the money because it was concerned about governance and the wananga having too many Pakeha students compared with Maori students.