As the mandated enity it is the Trust Board’s responsibility to communicate with its claimant community; however to date they have failed to do so. With only 80 people attending the 6 consultation hui, but yet the Trust Board have spent $603,000 worth of OTP funds trying to do so.

So here we are at an impasse; although the Minister of Maori Affairs has advised, “It is the mandated entity’s responsibility to communicate with its claimant community”, the entity refuses to communicate openly and freely. The Governments AIP offer is publically available; all of the funding details are publically available; the NKKWTB deed is publically available; but the entity still refuses to communicate openly.

I must admit I’m perplexed; I can’t see how the government expects the land claim process to succeed unless they can convince the Trust Board to openly communicate.