Waitangi Tribunal rules on Motunui claim

In a landmark ruling, the Waitangi Tribunal found that the Crown’s obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi included a duty to protect Māori fishing grounds.

One of the first claims to the tribunal (number Wai 6) was made by Te Āti Awa of Taranaki. The iwi opposed the construction of an outfall to discharge waste from the Motunui synthetic fuels plant, 6 km east of Waitara, into the Tasman Sea.

The tribunal found that industrial waste from Motunui – one of the flagship ‘Think Big’ energy projects of the 1975–84 National government – had already polluted Taranaki fishing grounds. The proposed outfall should not be built and a regional task force should be set up to find an alternative way to treat the waste.

The tribunal also recommended the formation of an interdepartmental committee to promote laws and regulations to recognise and control significant Māori fishing grounds. Processes for assessing proposed development projects should take into account their effect on such fishing grounds.

On 28 March, Prime Minister Robert Muldoon announced his government’s rejection of the tribunal’s recommendations. After fiery public debate, the government introduced legislation calculated to mollify Te Āti Awa while still allowing eventual construction of the outfall. In the wake of further uproar, all provision for an outfall was removed from this bill in September 1983.

The Motunui plant was world-leading but unable to produce synthetic petrol economically, and it was eventually converted to methanol production. This ceased in 2004 but resumed under private ownership in 2008.

A new land-based sewage treatment plant that was 90% Crown-funded reduced the pollution of the Waitara coastal fisheries to minimal levels. A Maori Fisheries Act passed in 1989 enabled the protection of Māori fishing grounds through the establishment of taiapure areas (reserves).

Image: Te Āti Awa kuia gathering shellfish at Motunui reef (Te Ara)