Legal battles challenging the Government’s so-called “anti-Māori” policies have cost taxpayers nearly $1 million in fees so far – and more cases are on the way.
Among them is Waikato-Tainui's High Court challenge over the use of te reo Māori in the public sector. Thirteen Crown Law staff worked on the case over five months, costing the Government just over $250,000 in legal fees.
Cabinet minister Chris Bishop told 1News there was nothing to "stop people suing the government. We'll defend those claims.
"If people want to waste time and money doing that, well, they're entitled to that."
Waikato-Tainui spokesperson Tukoroirangi Morgan said the iwi "have no options but to protect ourselves".
"We will not stop because someone has to hold them to account."
The Waitangi Tribunal’s summons of Children's Minister Karen Chhour cost the taxpayers just under $200,000, with at least 19 staff working on the case over one month. When adding the cost to repeal Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act, the price tag hits just over $300,000.
ACT Party leader David Seymour acknowledged that "to any normal person like me, $900,000 is a huge amount of money” but he said it was important to uphold democracy.
“If we just rolled over and let the Waitangi Tribunal set the rules, we wouldn't actually be a democracy,” he said.
Labour's Māori development spokesperson Willie Jackson said the mounting legal bills were “just the start".
"That's the problem," he said.
"We're going to see millions and millions of taxpayers’ dollars being used here."
Other action adding to the legal bill included $150,000 on the Treaty of Waitangi principles issue, and $56,000 in disestablishing the Māori Health Authority.
"For every dollar we spend in the High Court or in the court of laws, we are taking that money away from our whānau who need it," Morgan said.
But Seymour argued that "protect[ing] the integrity of our democracy and the accountability of government to all of New Zealand, it's actually money very well spent".
Jackson responded: "They will think it's money well spent but this is wasted money."
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