Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu Kaiwhakahaere Mark Solomon believes the government has been left in no uncertainty that Ngāi Tahu whānau want Section 9 of the State Owned Enterprises Act 1986 applied to the proposed mixed-ownership model for state-owned companies.

Mark Solomon was commenting on the response made by Ngāi Tahu whānau who spoke in response to the government’s presentation on its plans for state-owned companies yesterday in Invercargill and Christchurch.

“I thought the comments from our whānau were clear and well thought through,” says Mr Solomon. “Members of our Iwi not only stated their expectations that the Crown retain Section 9 reference in any new legislation covering these four SOEs, they challenged the Crown to work hard to enhance the values captured by the wording of this Section and to give greater life to the Treaty partnership.”

Mr Solomon gave a strong message to the Crown that the government had not provided enough time to talk to Iwi about its plans and that in itself was a breach of the Treaty. However, he acknowledged the Crown was doing the right thing by dealing directly with Iwi on the matter. We are the Treaty Partner and as such the government needs to recognise and respond to our views.

“The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister have acknowledged that the Crown has a duty to actively protect the Treaty partnership and we intend to keep them to their word.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media