Trust chair defends supporting tip

Dome Valley Landfill

The chair of Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust (NMST) told the Environment Court he was disappointed by the way the trust had been treated since it decided to switch support to Waste Management NZ (WM).

“I’m just wondering where this is taking us,” the judge said. “None of this has anything to do with the case. All we are doing is spinning our wheels unnecessarily.

“We’ve seen both sides of this and neither side is pretty, and I would have thought both parties would rather move on. If you really want to go on, I’m not going to stop you, but I’ve got to say when you point at somebody else, there’s always three fingers pointing back at you.”

Smith added that while there was no doubt that there had been a breakdown in the relationship between the marae trust and NMST, and that needed to be fixed, the court was not the place for that.

“I think in this case we’d do better to stick to our knitting than get involved in marae politics.”

He suggested to Baines that it was time for her and Hohneck to try at least to get on to business-like terms, since Ngāti Manuhuri was facing a number of big issues and, as the hapu’s only marae, it was important that the ahi kā (people of Pakiri) and the settlement trustees were in connection.