7 October 2015

New Ngāpuhi settlement leadership meet with Minister for Treaty Negotiations

New Tūhoronuku IMA chairman Hōne Sadler and deputy chairman, Kara George, met with the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations recently for a frank assessment of progress and ways to address any issues potentially holding back the settlement.

The meeting followed the release of the Waitangi Tribunal report on the Crown’s recognition of the Ngāpuhi mandate, which is currently being studied and assessed by Tūhoronuku IMA trustees.

Priorities agreed at the Ministerial meeting were:

- Tūhoronuku have agreed to an engagement process with the parties, including the Crown,to work through the issues being raised by Ngāpuhi hapū. This mahi will be led by trustee and previous deputy chair, Moana Tuwhare.

- The Tūhoronuku project team is to work with the Office of Treaty Settlements on financial planning and budgets. A number of workstreams are underway, to provide prudent financial planning and ensure the entity is not exposed to budget risks.

Regarding voting processes, the Minister was told Thoronuku IMA’s audit and risk committee was addressing his concerns.

Following the meeting, the Minister wrote to Mr Sadler outlining the issues raised.

Mr Sadler said that since the meeting he was satisfied these issues had been or were in the process of being addressed.

He and the Tūhoronuku IMA board had no objection to the letter being released to Ngāpuhi.

He said work being done to reach out to hapū yet to join the settlement waka was priority area number one at this time, and was being carried out in parallel with the early preparatory stages of negotiations.

ends

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