Doctors unable to land due to Kaitaia Airport protests

Kaitaia Airport with banners laid by Ngati Kahu occupiers. Photo / Edward Rooney

Protesters occupying Kaitaia Airport have forced a flight carrying five specialist doctors to be cancelled this morning.

Activists moved onto land at the airport at about lunchtime yesterday, cancelling flights into and out of the Far North, in protest against a $100 million Treaty of Waitangi settlement due to be ratified today.

The latest flight cancelled was expected to land at 8.30am with five doctors on board from Whangarei - including one dentist and one pediatrician.

Protesters appear to be building a marae in the Kaitaia Airport car park.

Kaitaia hospital operational manager Neta Smith was at the occupied airfield this morning, hoping the doctors would be able to land.

She was extremely disappointed when the flight was cancelled - and said it would have a real impact on the community.

"It's affected the people in the community. We're talking about children as well...kids are being affected by this," she said.

"I've got to now cancel clinics. I asked if they could come by road instead. They already work long hours, to ask them to add four hours of travel is just too much. It's not good use of their time."

Ms Smith hoped arrangements could be made to fly the doctors in tomorrow but said that relied on the occupation to end.

"If this doesn't get sorted today, they won't be coming tomorrow either," she said.

Hikoi to Kaitaia Airport for occupation by Ngati Kahu. Photo / Edward Rooney

Action leader Wi Popata, of Ngati Kahu, said yesterday the occupation would be "indefinite".

The Te Hiku Claims Settlement Bill is due for its third and final reading in Parliament tomorrow and includes the settlements of four of five Muriwhenua iwi - Te Aupouri, Ngai Takoto, Te Rarawa and Ngati Kuri. Ngati Kahu is the only Te Hiku iwi to not yet settle.

Protesters have started to occupy Kaitaia Airport land.

Maori activist and Mana Movement leader Hone Harawira also arrived at the airport this morning but refused to talk to media.

He simply waved his thumb at the occupation and said: "Talk to those guys".

Mr Harawira - an uncle to the Popata brothers - then went inside to talk to the occupiers and media could hear raised voices.

Far North Mayor John Carter met with protesters but said it remains unclear when flights may be permitted to resume.

Ngati Kahu Iwi occupy the Kaitaia airport. Photo / Supplied via Facebook

He went to the airport late yesterday for an "introductory discussion".

"It was for them to feel there's a genuine desire to discuss matters, which there is," he said.

Mr Carter said nothing was resolved through his conversation.

"Some people couldn't be there and so they are looking to have further discussions internally, then we'll sit around the table again."

The mayor said his council had always intended to discuss the prospects for the airport land with the two iwi which had laid claim to it, and that was still the case.

Airport operators Far North Holdings and Barrier Air were still trying to work out arrangements and it was too early to say whether businesses or people affected by the closure might be compensated, he said.

"The main thing is, we have had constructive talks but there's no way of knowing when this may be resolved as yet."

"We're in charge now"

Meeting protesters would be a waste of time, Treaty Settlement Minister Chris Finlayson has said.

The occupiers wanted to meet Mr Finlayson and Mr Carter.

Mr Carter saw the protesters late yesterday, but Mr Finlayson said he would not bother because it would be a waste of time.

Mr Carter said the closure of air services into and out of Kaitaia was an "unfortunate aspect" of the occupation.

About 50 people gathered at the Oturu Marae before walking to the occupation site with fence posts and corrugated iron to construct a marae. They went to the front desk and informed Barrier Air pilot Sam Bowering they were taking over the facility.

The airport's operators locked the terminal building as the protesters gathered outside to hear speeches in the carpark.

Another of the organisers, Hone Popata, said they would be occupying land beside the airport terminal, and all air operations would be closed.

"We are in charge now," he said.

"The last time we heard from Chris Finlayson he told Ngati Kahu to go to hell. Well, we're here to fight and to take back our land."

Police asked the occupiers to allow the airport company Far North Holdings to retrieve a Barrier Air craft and a fuel truck, which was agreed to.

"It's only a plane," one woman said.

"We want our land."

But Mr Finlayson said he had "no intention" of meeting the protesters and denied he had told Ngati Kahu to "go to hell".

"That's garbage. I told some people who were occupying a beach up there during the foreshore and seabed [protest of 2010] that they should go to hell, but that was years ago. It had nothing to do with the Treaty settlement."

Wi Popata said the airport land was important to three hapu of Ngati Kahu - Patukoraha, Ngai Tohianga and Ngai Takoto - and included important boundaries, with two urupa in the area.

The Matenga-Erstich whanau said the owners were "repossessing" land taken for an airfield in WWII.

"Oafish behaviour"

Ngati Kahu and Ngai Takoto have each been offered the right to buy 50 per cent of Kaitaia Airport in their respective Treaty of Waitangi settlements.

But but If Ngati Kahu does not settle with the Crown within three years, 100 per cent will be offered to Ngai Takoto, Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson told Parliament this morning.

He described the Ngati Kahu members occupying the airport as "miscreants" undertaking "oafish behaviour" and that it should not be seen as Ngati Kahu occupying the airport.

The offer for the airport is conditional on the land remaining an airport and the right to purchase takes effect in three years.

"If Ngati Kahu have not concluded a treaty settlement within three years of Ngai Takoto settlement date, around December 2018, then Ngai Takoto will have the sole right to purchase the property," Mr Finlayson said during debate on four northern settlements: Ngati Kuri, Te Aupouri, Ngai Takoto and Te Rarawa.

"This approach was taken because the Crown had to balance the interests of both iwi while ensuring certainty about the future of the airport."

He said Ngati Kahu had not been locked out negotations and he hoped Ngati Kahu would get involved in negotiations soon.

Mr Finlayson said he hoped Ngati Kahu were not going to be criticised for occupying the airport.

"It's not., There are a few miscreants who are doing it. They don't reflect Ngati Kahu. I hope that the day will come very soon when the miscreants will get lost and Ngati Kahu negotiators, be they the current ones or new ones, will sit down with the Crown and sort out these arrangements.

"There is no place for this kind of oafish behaviour, and I say no more than that because it is a matter for the police. It is an operational matter and politicians don't get involved in operational matters."

Both Ngai Takoto and Ngati Kahu would be involved in the renegotiating lease arrangements for the airport with Fra North Holdings Ltd, the commercial arm of the Far North District Council.

Additional reporting: Audrey Young, NZ Herald