Subj : Govt spends nearly $1m defending policies affecting Maori
To   : All
From : News
Date : Sat Jun 15 2024 01:55 pm

By 1News Reporters
Friday 7:52pm

Legal battles challenging the Government's so-called "anti-Maori" policies
have cost taxpayers nearly $1 million in fees so far - and more cases are on
the way.

Among them is Waikato-Tainui's High Court challenge over the use of te reo
Maori in the public sector. Thirteen Crown Law staff worked on the case over
five months, costing the Government just over $250,000 in legal fees.

Cabinet minister Chris Bishop told 1News there was nothing to "stop people
suing the government. We'll defend those claims.

"If people want to waste time and money doing that, well, they're entitled to
that."

Waikato-Tainui spokesperson Tukoroirangi Morgan said the iwi "have no options
but to protect ourselves".

"We will not stop because someone has to hold them to account."

The Waitangi Tribunal's summons of Children's Minister Karen Chhour cost the
taxpayers just under $200,000, with at least 19 staff working on the case
over one month. When adding the cost to repeal Section 7AA of the Oranga
Tamariki Act, the price tag hits just over $300,000.

ACT Party leader David Seymour acknowledged that "to any normal person like
me, $900,000 is a huge amount of money" but he said it was important to
uphold democracy.

"If we just rolled over and let the Waitangi Tribunal set the rules, we
wouldn't actually be a democracy," he said.

Labour's Maori development spokesperson Willie Jackson said the mounting
legal bills were "just the start".

"That's the problem," he said.

"We're going to see millions and millions of taxpayers' dollars being used
here."

Other action adding to the legal bill included $150,000 on the Treaty of
Waitangi principles issue, and $56,000 in disestablishing the Maori Health
Authority.

"For every dollar we spend in the High Court or in the court of laws, we are
taking that money away from our whanau who need it," Morgan said.

But Seymour argued that "protect[ing] the integrity of our democracy and the
accountability of government to all of New Zealand, it's actually money very
well spent".

Jackson responded: "They will think it's money well spent but this is wasted
money."

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