The government deserves to be congratulated for its agreement with Central North Island iwi to settle outstanding Treaty claims to crown forest land. Once complete, this will be one of the largest Treaty settlements ever, resulting in around half a billion dollars in land, accrued rentals and carbon credits being split amongst the iwi. And it will deal with some quite complex claims quickly, easily, and (according to the claimants - and its their views which are important here) fairly.
(I was initially concerned that the collective approach was being driven by the government as a way of getting a quick, headline-grabbing settlement which would leave Maori to fight among themselves. I'm glad to be wrong. The proposal has come from the ground up, and they seem happy to take a collective approach rather than waste time and money on further argument. And if they're happy with it, then we should be too)
Tuwharetoa are talking about a signing by June, which the government will be keen on, since it will give them a massive pre-election boost. We won't see settlement legislation before the election - that tends to take a couple of years to work its way through the House - but the hard work will have been done.
