Māori Party MP Hone Harawira has asked the minister of tertiary education Steven Joyce to explain the procedures tertiary education institutions have to comply with before disposing of any assets that are surplus to their needs.

Mr Harawira used his question in parliament yesterday to find out if those assets are able to be retained as part of the redress options for Treaty of Waitangi settlement claims for iwi.

In response Mr Joyce identified that the Universal College of Learning (UCOL) and Massey University have both identified surplus Crown assets and are going through a disposal process that includes consultation with iwi. Labour’s tertiary education spokesperson Maryan Street later suggested that the current Te Tau Ihu Treaty settlement negotiations may also impact upon land and properties currently occupied by the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology.

Mr Joyce said that if a tertiary institution wants to dispose of surplus land that is in Crown title, then Māori interests in that land are considered through the existing processes.

“These processes are managed by the Office of Treaty Settlements and are unchanged by the new policy regarding Crown assets in the tertiary sector. If a tertiary education institution wants to dispose of surplus land that it owns, it does not need to go through these processes, but it must honour any right of first refusal on the title of the land.”

However Mr Harawira was concerned that Cabinet had recently agreed to a plan “to make it easier for tertiary institutions to sell their Crown-owned assets” and wanted to know what consultation has been undertaken between the Crown and iwi over that plan.

The policy Mr Harawira was referring to was announced last month by the Tertiary Education Commission and enables tertiary institutions to acquire or sell Crown assets. However, if such an asset is currently being considered for inclusion in a Treaty of Waitangi settlement the Ministers might instead decide to lease the asset to the institute until all Treaty claims in the area are settled. This would be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Thanks to Br3nda @ Flickr for the photo