The Genesis of Direct Negotiation, the Fiscal Envelope and Their Impact on Tribal Land Claim Settlements

The genesis of direct negotiation and the fiscal envelope, for the settlement of Maori land claims under the Treaty of Waitangi, is portended in the aim of the National Party's Manifesto for the 1990 election to settle all claims by the year 2,000. To meet that ten year time-line, the National Government decided to set aside a fixed sum for the settlement of all claims. This fiscal cap was signalled in the (Sealords) Deed of Settlement for the Maori Fisheries Claim as the Treaty of Waitangi Settlement Fund. Under this clause, the signatories to the Deed agreed that the Crown had fiscal constraints which restricted its ability to settle other claims. In a memorandum dated 17 March 1992, Doug Graham, Minister in charge of Treaty Claims, recommended to the Cabinet Strategy Committee the policy direct negotiation to settle Maori claims that were well founded. This policy of 'chiefs talking with chiefs' obviates the need for claimants to go through the drawn out process of hearings with the Waitangi Tribunal. It is a seductive scenario which assumes a level playing field between the Crown and tribal negotiators. But it is hardly that as the Whakatahea negotiators discovered after the settlement of the Tainui Claim in 1995.