Hauraki District Council Mayor John Tregidga is urging Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson ‘get on' settling Treaty claims with the Hauraki Collective.

Negotiations between the Crown and the collective, which is a group of 12 iwi negotiating Treaty settlements in the Hauraki-Coromandel region, have been stalled since December of 2014.

Hauraki District Council mayor John Tregidga has called on Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson to restart negotiations with the 12 iwi making up the Hauraki Collective Photo: Donna Walsh/File

These negotiations have been stalled due to some of the Hauraki Iwi taking a separate issue to the Waitangi Tribunal for clarification.

John says since December 2014 the minister has refused to negotiate while that matter is with the Tribunal.

'The claim before the Waitangi Tribunal has no bearing on the Hauraki Collective's settlement negotiations,” says the mayor. 'It concerns whether the Hauraki iwi should be represented on a pan-iwi co-governance forum in the Bay of Plenty, of the type seen elsewhere around the country.

'The Minister is saying that until they give up that claim, or it is settled, he will not negotiate.”

John says when the Hauraki iwi petitioned the Tribunal to hear their case urgently in order to have the matter resolved quickly, the Minister opposed the request.

But the Tribunal then rejected the Crown arguments and it will hear the iwi if the Crown continues with its current approach.

'The Crown needs to just get on with things and get back to the negotiating table,” adds John.

'Given that the Tribunal agreed with the Iwi of Hauraki, their claim was obviously just and the Crown was wrong to oppose it and stop negotiations.

John believes over the four year timeframe the Hauraki Collective settlement negotiations were taking place they were 'very constructive and made significant progress”.

He says negotiations are about 99 per cent completed, but everything came to a halt towards the end of last year because of the Minister and his officials' decision to break off negotiations.

'Councils have invested considerable time and effort into the settlement process. Iwi have done likewise – putting aside years of disagreement to come together as a collective.

'We all just want to get on and start working together, as we are already doing in collectives such as the Hauraki Gulf Forum.”

One, or if, settlement negotiations are completed John says the iwi of Hauraki would be the Haurkai council's largest landowner and largest ratepayer.

Including their settlement quantum and forestry assets, they will oversee a balance sheet with assets totalling around $200 million.

John says there is much more that they can do but first the settlement needed to be completed.

'One only has to look to Ngai Tahu to see the positive impact which iwi can make economically and throughout the community once they can focus on the post-settlement phase of growing their asset base and being a constructive partner to local and central government.

'Every month that passes without completion of the settlement in Hauraki is a missed opportunity.”