Ben Thomas on Ihumātao

Ben Thomas writes at Stuff:

The 33 hectares at Ihumātao were confiscated as a result of the New Zealand Wars in the 19th century. In Tauranga, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki and parts of Hawke’s Bay around 3.4 million acres were taken, 40,000 times as much. …

Ihaumātao is – sadly – unexceptional in this respect.
That is why the return of the land to iwi by the Crown, as some activists are demanding, is not a tenable option for the government.
Historical settlements in Auckland (mostly, but not entirely complete) have been a delicate balancing act between around two dozen iwi with overlapping and sometimes competing interests, requiring compromise from all sides on the crowded isthmus. Te Kawarau a Maki settled its historical claims in 2015.

And the idea of the settlements is the local Iwi gains financial resources so it can then decide how to invest them. They can then buy back land that has particular value to them. Or invest in companies. Or invest in local initiatives to create jobs etc.

If the government was seen to come in and effectively re-open full and final settlements with a multi-million dollar gift of land, the successful historical Treaty settlement process would start to unravel.

Other Iwi would take this as a green light. It would create a huge precedent.

The only way around it I can see is if the Crown buys the land off Fletchers and creates a public park. Damn expensive park that probably no one will ever go to. But that avoids it being seen as a Treaty settlement outside the agreed framework.