Watchdog Warns Of Reputational Damage From Failure To Meet Treaty Settlement Obligations

Thursday, 10 April 2025, 4:56 pm
Article: RNZ

Russell Palmer, Political Reporter

The Auditor-General has criticised the public sector over a lack of planning, monitoring and accountability for keeping to commitments laid down in Treaty settlement laws.

John Ryan found "many public organisations do not properly plan how they will meet their commitments, nor do they prioritise sufficient resources to do so. Many do not have effective processes for monitoring whether they are meeting their commitments".

He pointed to He Korowai Whakamana, a Cabinet-approved framework aimed at strengthening oversight and monitoring for Treaty settlements, saying it had improved transparency and helped identify and resolve issues with providing redress.

But despite some "isolated examples of good practise", public organisations audited were "not yet consistently meeting their commitments or supporting settlements' overall intent".

This would deny opportunities to post-settlement groups, and the reputational damage could make it harder for the public sector to achieve the intent of settlements and improve the relationship with iwi and hapū.

He pointed to a lack of accountability and monitoring, saying it was "unacceptable that public organisations have not fully appreciated Treaty settlements' complexity or adequately recognised the importance of meeting their commitments consistently and promptly", and warning that over many years a tolerance of that lack had built up.

Ryan also noted the number of settlements had effectively doubled each decade between 1989 and 2020, "and this has increased the volume and complexity of public organisations' responsibilities".

"Today, about 150 public organisations have about 12,000 individual contractual and legal commitments under about 80 settlements with about 70 groups. To date, $2.738 billion of financial and commercial redress has been transferred through settlements."

He made nine recommendations to improve the sector response:

• Te Puni Kōkiri, working with other public organisations as appropriate, develop a framework to guide public organisations to achieve settlements' holistic intent
• All public organisations with settlement commitments review how they plan to meet and monitor their commitments
• Responsible Ministers, the Public Service Commission, and the governing bodies of Crown entities, local authorities, and other non-core Crown agencies with settlement commitments strengthen expectations on public organisations about meeting their commitments in performance agreements with chief executives and in other relevant mechanisms
• Land Information New Zealand works to ensure that there is a system in place so that right of first refusal memorials are correctly placed on land titles
• The Public Service Commission and the governing bodies of Crown entities, local authorities, and other non-core Crown agencies strengthen ongoing development for chief executives so that they can lead their organisations to effectively meet settlement commitments
• Te Puni Kōkiri consider improvements to the quality and accuracy of the information that Te Haeata collects and reports
• All public organisations with settlement commitments improve the information that their annual reports provide about their progress in meeting their commitments, including by clearly explaining:
• Te Puni Kōkiri and the Public Service Commission work together, and with others as needed, to consider how to extend He Korowai Whakamana to relevant Crown entities, local authorities, and other non-core Crown agencies, to ensure that:
• Te Puni Kōkiri regularly assess the public sector's progress with meeting settlement commitments, whether it is achieving each settlement's holistic intention, and any significant risks and achievements, and:

- regularly report that assessment to the Minister for Māori Crown Relations and other responsible Ministers; and

- report on those matters annually to the Māori Affairs Select Committee

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