Tūhoe Claims Budget for 'Transitional Huts' Now Being Spent on Injunction into Existing Huts They Most Likely Burnt Down

December 26, 2022

In its December e-pānui to iwi beneficiaries, Te Uru Taumatua stated it had spent $20,000 to respond to the injunction requests and estimated the process could cost $200,000, a budget it had intended to allocate to build transitional huts.

It wrote that since Te Urewera became a legal entity in 2013, the Crown contributed $8.87 million or an average of $1.3m annually towards the maintenance of the area, but this was less than what the Department of Conservation (DoC) used to spend on Te Urewera National Park - around $6m to $8m a year.

Te Urewera’s board had contributed $6.63m of the $15.51m spent over the past seven years on hut maintenance, pest control, signs, tracks, visitor operations, human resources and workforce development, financial systems, asset management, equipment and vehicles.

It claimed DoC had “not been keen to shift responsibility and authority to Tūhoe for Te Urewera” and Tūhoe had been lumbered with a “75-year-old DoC-Crown legacy that was not intended by the 2013 Treaty settlement”.