Treaty claim deadline creeps into law

An end to the Treaty settlement process is a symbolic step closer after the Government quietly introduced legislation setting a 2008 deadline for lodging historical claims.

In a sign of sensitivity within Labour's ranks about the issue, the deadline was slipped into omnibus legislation tabled in Parliament this week without fanfare.

A furious National yesterday questioned the Government's motives in "hiding" the deadline in legislation that contained other changes unacceptable to the Opposition, including a clause retrospectively validating hundreds of Maori Land Court decisions that may otherwise be tossed out.

"We will seek a briefing and we will want a damn good explanation as to why the Te Ture Whenua Maori Act should be changed to allow judges' activity to be validated in retrospect," Maori Affairs spokesman Gerry Brownlee said.

Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia's office said the clauses relating to the Maori Land Court were a "technicality".

But a spokeswoman confirmed that hundreds of cases could be affected - including 83 decisions or judicial acts by Judge Norman Smith in 2000, after his judicial warrant had expired. Several hundred more orders were affected by a "misunderstanding" over the powers of the court's deputy chief judge.

The legislation imposing a deadline appears to have caught Maoridom by surprise, with key Maori leaders spoken to yesterday saying they were not forewarned.

Even the Minister Responsible For Treaty Negotiations, Mark Burton, was caught on the back foot, with officials having to tell him at a select committee hearing yesterday that the legislation had been tabled by Mr Horomia.

Labour campaigned on a 2008 deadline for lodging Treaty claims after being pushed to match its political opponents on the issue by National leader Don Brash's landmark "one law for all" Orewa speech in 2004, which sparked a race relations backlash.

The Government has been under pressure to speed up the Treaty settlement process, as the Waitangi Tribunal faces a backlog of claims. But while it says it hopes all claims are settled by 2020, it won't set a formal deadline.