The Government is being accused of rushing to finalise a controversial treaty settlement to avoid returning a further $800 million worth of assets to Wairarapa Māori.
The Supreme Court is currently considering whether these assets could be returned, but there's fear the Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-ā-Rua Settlement will be finalised before it makes a decision.
One of the assets includes the multi-million dollar Maraetai Power Station in Waikato and the surrounding Pouakani lands.
Sir Kim Workman, from the Wairarapa Moana Incorporation, said those lands belonged to his people.
"It establishes our mana and our right to redress," he said.
"It's time to have a redress. It's time for it to be sorted."
The land is nowhere near the Ngāti Kahungunu tribal territory, but it's land the Crown once gave as compensation for the taking and mishandling of the Wairarapa lakes.
In 2020, the Waitangi Tribunal agreed the assets should be returned to Wairarapa Māori, and, under the Treaty of Waitangi Act, could order the Government to hand them over under a resumption order.
Resumption orders can only be made over state-owned assets or Crown forestry lands, and the Waitangi Tribunal has never fully exercised this power.
"It was really special that the tribunal recommended the return of those lands to Wairarapa Māori," said Anne Carter from the Wairarapa Moana Incorporation.
"That was a significant moment in our history. But the Wairarapa Moana Incorporation is still fighting to have our lands returned to us."
That's because the Government took the tribunal to court to overturn the decision and won.
The dispute has now reached the Supreme Court, where a final outcome is imminent.
But the Government has refused to wait and is pressing ahead with the settlement without the assets, with the support of the Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki Nui ā Rua Settlement Trust.
Anne Carter said the move is completely unethical.
"This Government is demonstrating that it is going to extinguish our claim before we even get to hear the outcome of the supreme court," she said.
"Our view is that's just a slap in the face for natural justice in New Zealand."
Treaty Negotiations Minister Andrew Little rejected the accusation, saying the group he negotiated with wanted to go ahead.
"It was the Settlement Trust who negotiated an improvement of the original deal and said, 'we don't want that, we now want to proceed with the agreement we have with the crown'".
But the Waitangi Tribunal also ruled the Settlement Trust did not have the authority to make that call.
If the Supreme Court sides with the Waitangi Tribunal, the Government could be forced to buy the power station and another major forestry asset for close to $1 billion.
This would be an unprecedented amount and worth more than any treaty settlement to date.
Sir Kim said he believed the Government was trying to avoid fronting up to the costs.
"It would probably cost the crown a lot, and they don't want to pay the money," he said.
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