12 mars 1999 - Maori threaten Govt with High Court over state house sales

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THE sale of state houses is in breach of the Treaty of Waitangi, Maoris say, and they are taking an urgent case to the Waitangi Tribunal to try to stop further sales.

New Zealand Maori Council chairman Sir Graham Latimer and Auckland urban Maori advocate John Tamihere said they would ask the tribunal to recommend against further sales without proper consultation with Maoris.

They would also consider applying for a High Court injunction against further sales.

"These houses have been sold off to profit-making companies without proper consultation with Maori - despite the fact that many of these houses are built on Maori land compulsorily taken under the Public Works Act," Sir Graham said.

At the start of this month, Housing NZ sold 540 Wairarapa houses to Trust House, an arm of the Masterton Licensing Trust, for about $10.5 million.

It sold 380 properties in Wellington, Porirua and Lower Hutt last year, for nearly $31 million.

In Porirua, the Cannons Creek Fanau Centre is managing nearly 600 state houses, with an option to buy them if Housing NZ considers the community organisation has carried out its management contract adequately.

Sir Graham said the Government had made hundreds of millions of dollars by selling state houses, at the expense of Maoris.

He said Maoris made up 40 per cent of Housing NZ tenants, and it was their basic Treaty right to be consulted about Government decisions that affected them.

Meanwhile, Whanganui MP Jill Pettis said yesterday that Housing NZ sold 75 Wanganui state houses at a "giveaway" average price of $18,000 each.

The answer to a question Mrs Pettis asked in Parliament confirmed that 75 properties were sold to investors Peter Robinson and Eric Nelson for $1.35 million.

Mrs Pettis said the Government was "giving public assets away" and the sales meant low-income Wanganui families would suffer as the Government opted out of responsibility for their housing.

Source: STATE HOUSE SALES `IN BREACH OF TREATY'.
332 words
12 March 1999
The Dominion
DOMN

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