NZ: Crown defends TPP secrecy at Waitangi Tribunal hearing
The Waitangi Tribunal questioned the Solicitor General about the secrecy surrounding the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement at a hearing in Wellington yesterday.
The Tribunal heard arguments from the Crown and Māori claimants on whether it should hold an urgent inquiry into the controversial deal.
Maori individuals and organisations from around the motu have filed claims alleging the trade deal will jeopardise their Treaty rights, while the Crown says it will not.
Claimants accused the Crown of a lack of consultation with Māori because it refused to reveal any of the processes or details of negotiations between Aotearoa and the 11 other countries involved.
Tribunal panel member, Sir Doug Kidd, challenged the Solicitor General, Mike Heron, as to how the Crown was able to consult with Māori if it couldn’t share any information with them due to its confidential nature.
"Say we [the Crown] go to a marae and say ’we negotiating an important trade agreement with all the build-up stuff that goes up and we are interested in your views’. They might say ’about what?’ and you say ’we can’t tell you - [it’s] secret’.
"And you come away in triumph and say ’the obligation’s mutual, they told us nothing, and we’ve discharged our obligation to mutually consult. I mean that’s kind of Gilbertian isn’t it."
But Mr Heron said the Crown had engaged in meaningful talks with Māori during the TPP process.
"With respect, we don’t agree with that version because it’s clear that we haven’t, and ministry people and other agencies haven’t, been going along to meetings and saying nothing.
"Of course they’ve been discussing what free trade agreements [are] about, the types of things that are at issue, the things that New Zealand is trying to achieve and inviting comment as to well, what are the issues that trouble you?"
Tribunal panel lawyer David Cochrane also quizzed Mr Heron about what the Crown described as ’meaningful’ talks with Māori during the TPP process.
- The Waitangi Tribunal is hearing arguments on whether it should hold an urgent inquiry into the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson
