Treaty of Waitangi settlement: Keep a close eye on timeframes

After all the years and hard work of negotiating a Treaty of Waitangi settlement, iwi groups can face additional delays if they do not take into consideration the tight timeframes to get arrangements in place by the settlement date. 

Sometimes the relatively short time to get ready for the settlement date can mean that parts of the settlement redress are delayed and cannot be implemented on the settlement date.  This can be a huge disappointment after all the time, effort and resources spent negotiating the settlement. 

At the conclusion of the negotiations, settlement legislation is drafted and then introduced to Parliament as a Bill.  The process of passing a Treaty of Waitangi settlement Bill into law has usually taken some time to conclude…usually years but in more recent times this is being done sooner. 

During this period iwi will usually face many challenges, including:

1. Agreeing and establishing the Post Settlement Governance Entity (PSGE) and any subsidiaries;
2. Transferring assets & obligations from existing entities to the new PSGE;
3. Transferring cultural and commercial settlement redress assets from the Crown to the PSGE and any subsidiaries;
4. Entering into any additional management or other arrangements agreed with the Crown and other groups required under the Deed of Settlement;
5. Considering tax implications for any new structure and the asset transfers – both for the ownership entities and for any subsidiary that is to receive settlement assets from the PSGE.

All of this can take additional time and effort to prepare and implement.

In order to meet the increasingly shorter deadlines of settlement, iwi should start thinking now about what will be required to implement settlement and ensure that they are ready.




Peter Johnston
Māori Issues Lawyer
Wellington