​WAI 2840: Hauraki Overlapping Claims Inquiry While working through the MACA Stage 1 hearings, the Board was also preparing to appear again at the Waitangi Tribunal hearings from 8 – 12 April in Wellington. These hearings (WAI 2840) are an urgent inquiry into the Crown’s Treaty Settlement policy regarding overlapping claims and the proposed redress in relation to the Hauraki Collective, Marutūāhu Collective and individual Hauraki iwi settlements.

A pōwhiri for the hearings took place on Sunday 7th April at Waiwhetu Marae, Lower Hutt and the hearings began on Monday 8th April.

The Board’s representatives, witnesses and supporters including our whānau from Aotea, attended the hearings at Waiwhetu Marae in unison. Whānau based in Wellington also attended in support. Ngātiwai presented a very strong presence at the hearings together with Ngāti Manuhiri.

Kiri Tahana from Kahui Legal set the stage for Ngātiwai witnesses with compelling opening submissions. Ngātiwai Trustee for Matapouri Aperahama Edwards and Ngātiwai Chairman Haydn Edmonds were cross-examined and at the last minute the Crown and counsel for Hauraki chose not to cross-examine Ngātiwai Treaty Claims Manager Tania McPherson.

Treaty Claims Committee Chairman, Aperahama Edwards says, “It was great to have the Ngātiwai presence seen and heard, we really appreciated the tautoko from our whānau in Wellington and from across the motu that were able to attend."

“Going through these two hearings simultaneously has had huge impact on our Board and our wider iwi.”

“The time, effort and costs that has gone into defending our Mana is huge, but we cannot sit back and watch our Mana Moana and Mana Whenua be given away by the Crown without anyone having a conversation with us on our marae first.”

 “So we had to travel, we had to fight this injustice and we had to defend the Mana of our people.”

“We would like to thank Kiri and all the team from Kahui legal who presented our case so professionally and ensured that the mana of our iwi was upheld.”

The timetable for the hearings was constantly changing up to and throughout the hearings but live-streaming links to the hearings were provided on a daily basis for claimants and was also screened at the Trust Board's offices.

Although the kaupapa was not a happy one feedback received included:
• Ngātiwai has the strongest case both in terms of poor Crown process and severity of redress, particularly on Aotea.
• Ngātiwai and Ngāti Manuhiri provided a united front with our legal counsels tag teaming in the cross-examination.
• The Crown admitted it had made a number of mistakes in relation to the Ngātiwai involvement in the overlapping claims processes.
• The Tribunal’s questioning of the witnesses demonstrated it was alive to the Ngātiwai case.
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Next steps:
• Claimants closing submissions are due on 8th May 2019
• Crown and interested parties closing submissions are due on 5th June 2019.
• Claimants reply submissions are then due on 17th June 2019.
• The Tribunal's report is likely to take several months to complete given the complexity of the claimants cases.

MACA Stage 1 – Week 1 Hearings
This first week of the Marine and Coastal Area Act (MACA) Waitangi Tribunal hearings were held in Wellington from Monday 25th March to Friday 29th March 2019.

Ngātiwai were represented at these hearings by Treaty Claims Committee Chairman and Trustee for Matapouri – Aperahama Edwards, Treaty Claims Manager, Tania McPherson and our Legal Counsel, Stuart Henderson and Paula Wilson of Henderson Reeves, Whangarei.  Our Ngātiwai whānau who presented their case at these hearings on behalf of their whānau and hāpu did a great job with their time in the witness stand, and upheld the mana of Ngātiwai proudly.

Ngātiwai were given the opportunity to present evidence on the Tuesday afternoon with Tania McPherson presenting our evidence with our legal counsel, and then continuing to stand to answer cross examination questions.  The Ngātiwai evidence focused solely on the procedural and resourcing issues.

Ngātiwai presented a very comprehensive evidence and this was acknowledged by the Tribunal panel, and also by Crown counsel and senior staff of Te Arawhiti (formerly known as the Office of Treaty Settlements).

The procedural and resourcing issues that Ngātiwai focused on became more evident as the week progressed.  A high court registrar under cross examination conceded that the High Court was clearly not prepared for the tsunami of applications that they were to receive, they had little preparation, no practice notes or guidelines.  They were challenged as to whether the Crown could and should have been better prepared given other large public interest proceedings they have previously been involved in.

Other procedural issues were uncovered with senior Te Arawhiti staff conceding under cross examination that they could have done better with communicating with the effected groups.
As a result of this Waitangi Tribunal Inquiry, Te Arawhiti will undertake a review of the funding amounts and policy for High Court applications, and will contact each of the High Court MACA applicants to participate in the process.

Treaty Claims Committee Chairman, Aperahama Edwards says, “It has been a long week, but I feel we presented our case with mana for all of Ngātiwai.”

“Our Treaty Claims Manager, Tania McPherson, did a great job answering questions accurately and succinctly during her time on the stand.  She did brilliantly in representing this case for our iwi.”
“I would also like to acknowledge our legal team from Henderson Reeves.  Paula Wilson and Stuart Henderson have been fantastic to work with, and presented our case professionally and totally on point, as acknowledged by the Tribunal and others.”

From here, dates for closing submissions for Stage 1 of the MACA Inquiry (WAI 2660) will be announced.  Ngātiwai will shortly decide if we attend the hearings for closing submissions or whether we ask our legal team to present our closing submissions at the hearings on our behalf.
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Aperahama says, “Being involved in these processes comes at huge cost and time.  So the iwi will consider its next steps, while being mindful of how we best use our resources and manage costs.”