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Today’s comment was written by Brian Mattspank Thank you Brian Mattspank for taking the time to craft such an interesting comment.
If you ever need an example of the failure of co-governance have a look at the story on Stuff regarding Lake Waikaremoana. “The problem comes down to money, according to T?hoe…” Of course, it does, it always does.
“Since it took over co-governance of Te Urewera seven years ago as part of its Treaty settlement – a world-first deal giving the former National Park its own legal personality – T?hoe has felt that it hasn’t been sufficiently resourced to maintain the place and its infrastructure.”
It goes on;
“Under the Te Urewera Act, the area is governed by a board, Te Uru Taumatua (TUT), now made up of six Tuhoe representatives, and three from the Crown. Tamati Kruger, the TUT chairman, says opening up Te Urewera to the public is “way down the list of priorities” for Tuhoe, as it brings no benefit to the iwi.”
No benefit huh?
““DOC wants to spend its efforts and a sizeable amount of its resource contribution … on structures,” Kruger says. “Tuhoe, on the other hand, wants to put its efforts and contribution … to the first purpose of the legislation, which is the re-connection of Tuhoe with Te Urewera. So you can see our problem.”
So DOC wants to keep bridges and huts in good repair and Tuhoe appear to just want to get cashed up to “reconnect“. Yes, we can see the problem alright.
“Kruger says that, through DOC, the Crown has been providing around $2m a year to maintain Te Urewera, which he suggests is “overly miserly”.
I can’t see any mention of Tuhoe’s financial contribution.
“Mervyn English, DOC’s governance and Treaty chief advisor, says it provides $2.2m a year as a “base amount”. On top of that, DOC makes money available for various projects and activities.
“For example, DOC funded the purchase and the installation of new stoves in many huts.”
That doesn’t sound miserly to me. Then;
“Regular users say Tuhoe representatives were aggressive in the way they went about removing people, which caused public anger.”
Bully boy tactics, why am I not surprised?
“Meanwhile, Wayne Beattie?, a Detective Sergeant with Gisborne police who took part in a Tuhoe-sanctioned search and rescue operation at Lake Waikaremoana in November, says he was shocked by the state of facilities.
The Whanganui Hut had been vandalised, with condoms and human waste left on the floor, gang slogans drawn on the furniture and slats from the bunks used as firewood. Other huts were in a poor state, with guttering pulled down or collapsed and empty water tanks, Beattie says, while “thousands of dollars’ worth” of pest traps were unused and rotting on the ground”
Sounds like the co-governors are just sitting on the couch. In 2012 “Tuhoe has reached an agreement with the Crown for a $170 million settlement of historic grievances. That puts it up there among the largest settlements to date…”
So why can’t they contribute some of that $170m towards the upkeep of the facilities? Easier just to hold out your hand I guess. At the time of settlement, this was stated; ” Public access would be guaranteed on the same access as now.” So it would appear that Tuhoe has broken at least one promise and opening the area again is ‘way down their list of priorities. Also back in 2012 Kruger stated; “”These settlements don’t necessarily represent an answer but rather a means by which each every iwi moves on and creates their own wealth…”
Mr. Kruger; how about you use some of Tuhoe’s ‘own wealth’ to maintain the area and its facilities instead of expecting ongoing payments from the beleaguered taxpayer?
That’s the problem with the treaty gravy train, it never stops.
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