Ngāpuhi leader warns govt heading for court action

The Treaty Negotiations Minister Andrew Little is on a last-ditch diplomatic mission to Northland this weekend in an attempt to persuade warring Ngapuhi factions to allow a single authority to negotiate their long-awaited settlement. Pita Tipene, who co-chairs the hapu alliance Te Kotahitanga, has told our Northland reporter Lois Williams the Minister is ignoring the earlier recommendations of the Waitangi Tribunal that such a process would run rough-shod over the rights of individual sub-tribes.