14. Was it a fair process setup the appointment process in March 2013?
Trust Board Reply:
The process for appointing Marae delegates is set at the Marae, not the Trust Board level. The process for appointing the Post-Settlement Advisory group (PSAG) was decided by the Trust Board, who representatives come each of the seven Marae, and it was considered fair at the time by the Trust Board.
As stated by the Trust Board over 40% of our Iwi live in Auckland, and I would guess quite a few live in Australia and other places overseas; maybe an additional 10%.
Unfortunately most of these whanau are not in agreement or associated with any of the Marae. What happens to these whanau? Why do they have to be forced to speak through a Marae delegate? Why not through a hapu delegate? Since the Land Claim is actually a descendant claim, why don’t we simply ask for representatives of the five descendant hapu to be on the Trust Board instead; this way we can ensure that the Lands are returned to the people that actually owned it before the Government stole it? Also, rather than a faceless Government or Trust Board being taken to court by disgruntled Iwi, they can take their grievance directly to their Hapu representative.