Settlement funding process 'hampers' Maori claimants

By RUTH BERRY

The Crown's policies around the funding of treaty settlement negotiations hamstring claimants' ability to take part in a process already heavily skewed against against them, iwi negotiators say.

And the process can take a sometimes traumatic toll on those negotiators, who have to battle with the Crown and then return to their people to dash hopes that all their land and resources will be returned.

Case studies revealing the experiences of negotiators from five claimant groups which have been through negotiations with the Crown are in a book, Maori Experiences of the Direct Negotiation Process, just released. It was prepared by the Crown Forestry Rental Trust as a guide preparing claimants for what to expect when entering what is often a lengthy, stressful and fractious process for their communities.

Negotiators from Te Uri o Hau, Ngati Awa, Ngati Tama, Te Atiawa and Rangitaane o Manawatu contributed and, though some experiences differed, several common themes emerged.

All the negotiators believed the process favoured the Crown, because it determined the rules under which negotiations took place.

"While there may be limited scope for Maori to tailor the terms of the negotiations to their particular circumstances, the overall process is highly set by previous settlements" and there was little scope for actual negotiation.

Ngati Tama negotiator Greg White described it as: "You take it or leave it. You can kick, you can scream, you can do whatever you like, but they're not interested. There is only so far you can go before you have to do the Whakatohea shuffle, in other words if the negotiators or the iwi reject the Crown's offer you go to the back of the negotiations queue."

All of the participants believed that negotiation should be a process that took place between equally resourced and informed parties "ideally on a level playing field with full disclosure of information at the outset of proceedings". But the reality was quite different.

Te Atiawa (Taranaki) negotiator Peter Adds said the Crown refused to disclose how it worked out what financial compensation the three northern Taranaki iwi would get.

"They said, 'we've got a methodology but we're not going to tell you what it was'. Well there was no methodology, these were figures just plucked out of the air for no particular reason ... That was our view anyway."

All five negotiators believed the Crown's policy of making only a contribution to claimants' costs was inadequate and were particularly critical of its policy of retrospective payments - including waiting until claimants had gained a mandate.

Esther Gray of Te Uri o Hau said the milestone funding policy "was start and stop ... we went on no salary for eight months until we could get funding to carry us through".

"Sometimes we walked into a team of 15 [Crown negotiators]. We only had three ... it all boils down to resources, whether they be human or monetary."

Professor Hirini Moko Mead of Ngati Awa said: "Many iwi do not have the resources to carry through a negotiations process that goes on and on, and cynics would argue that part of Crown policy is to run iwi into the ground. Perhaps by running them into the ground, running them into debt, the iwi might be more ready to settle."

Some of the negotiators felt the Crown controlled the negotiations, had an adversarial approach and was not open to negotiation over financial compensation at all.

All experienced frustration with the negotiation environment, but some expressed respect for the Crown's Office of Treaty Settlement staff.