Minister meeting with Ngāpuhi hapū as 'sovereignty question' lingers

Minister for Treaty Negotiations Paul Goldsmith will meet formally with Ngāpuhi hapū for the first time today.

The Minister was invited to join a pre-planned meeting of Te Kotahitanga o ngā Hapū Ngāpuhi - a confederation of Ngāpuhi hapū who meet regularly - and will take place amidst a backdrop of the "sovereignty question", said Ngāti Hine leader Pita Tipene.

Tipene - who is the chairperson of Te Kotahitanga - said it was established to oppose the Tūhoronuku Mandate, a board created and later rejected to represent the Northland iwi through the settlement process.

"Te Kotahitanga continues to have a goal to be a forum where the hapū of Ngāpuhi can come together and configure themselves for Treaty negotiations as they want to, not as anybody else may want to, including the government.

"We're very clear that hapū of Ngāpuhi have our mana motuhake, and therefore we will decide how to best move forward together and not have, certainly, the government impose itself upon the hapū."

It will be the first time the minister has attended a Kotahitanga hui, Tipene said, and the minister's office confirmed this was the first official meeting with wider Ngāpuhi representation.

"The minister was invited to come and speak and hui with the hapū of Ngāpuhi," said Tipene, "he's accepted and that's why he's coming here today. So we're looking forward to the kōrerō we're about to have."

Tipene is hopeful the minister will be open to processing the claim in a way that aligns with Te Kotahitanga, and points out Goldsmith has been in the role for nearly one year now.

"So he's had a lot of time to think. He's had a long time to ponder and talk with his coalition partners as well about the how the government may be seeing the landscape for the hapū of Ngāpuhi moving forward."

But Tipene also pointed out that as minister for justice, Goldsmith was also overseeing other coalition policies such as the Marine and Coastal Area Act reform that is "prominent in the minds of the of the hapū of Ngāpuhi" and mentioned the Treaty Principles Bill as another key issue.

"What we're very, very clear about as hapū is that the backdrop of all of this is that the hapū have never ceded sovereignty."

"So while we may be talking about Treaty negotiations, in the backdrop, there is the sovereignty question," Tipene added, referencing the statement by the prime minister recently that Māori ceded sovereignty.

"So that particular backdrop will be made very stark to the Minister when he arrives today."

Tipene said having the government openly recognise that Māori did not cede sovereignty was something "we certainly want to hear".

"Conversation has to start somewhere" said Tipene, "we just have to hear what the minister, this minister's, position is today, and we'll be all listening very, very carefully when he speaks."

Tipene said the hapū wanted to move forward, but they did not want to be reactionary, nor did they want the government to "corral them into configuring themselves as the government sees fit", or reacting to a "government agenda".

"This will be a key message to the minister, please help us to configure ourselves as we want to configure ourselves because we want to advance. We are certainly not happy with our current circumstances in every sense of the word.

"We want to be proactive and work amongst ourselves for a start and with government."

While speaking, Tipene differentiated between 'Ngāpuhi' and the 'hapū of Ngāpuhi'.

"Because the moment you call ourselves Ngāpuhi, there's that imperceptible view that Ngāpuhi is all together on this.

"Yes, we are, but the hapū will have the last say, and certainly we don't want to plunge ourselves into another 10 years of civil war."

Negotiations with Ngāpuhi for a settlement began in 2009, but when the Crown recognised the Tūhoronuku Mandate in 2014, not all hapū felt they were adequately represented by that board. The Waitangi Tribunal also found the Mandate undermined the rangatiratanga of hapū and was therefore flawed.

Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson withdrew from the process in 2017, before Andrew Little later picked up the negotiations.

When Goldsmith picked up the portfolio, he indicated he was committed to settling Ngāpuhi's Treaty claim, but didn't want to "relitigate" arguments about legal sovereignty.

The minister's office provided a statement about his attendance today, saying he was "looking forward to attending the Te Kotahitanga and having robust discussions with hapū".

"Since becoming minister for Treaty of Waitangi megotiations," Goldsmith said, "I have been very clear I would like to progress Ngāpuhi negotiations without delay. But of course, timing is ultimately up to the various hapu."