“Greenpeace is concerned that an oil company with an exploration licence off Northland may be bribing iwi leaders to bolster support for their controversial drilling plans. Greenpeace has taken a picture of three executives from Norwegian oil giant Statoil meeting with an Iwi leader at a Wellington cafe. 

Campaigner Mike Smith said it goes against the Norwegian government's protocols specifying that consultation must be done through appropriate procedures and representative institutions. He said it's an effort to win over individual iwi leaders rather than engaging collectively. "They've got clear instructions from the Norwegian government that they should only deal with institutions and mandated representatives, that's our main concern."

Sources:

[1] http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/national/greenpeace-oil-company-may-be-bribing-iwi/

Members of iwi Ngati Kura clamp four cars at Matauri Bay and clamp four cars belonging to students on the beach for a surfing lesson. The group, armed with a portable EFTPOS machine, demanded $800 from Kamo Intermediate principal John Smith and only unclamped the students’ cars after he had paid up.
Sources:

[1] SunLive, Friday 13 Apr, 2012: Beach Extortion”: http://www.sunlive.co.nz/news/24126-beach-extortion.html

By Sarah Taylor

One Pure, owned by Hong Kong based corporation Hon Lung International, with the capital and expertise to build a massive water bottling facility, felt the need to approach Hawke’s Bay tribal entity Ngati Paarau^[i]  for “support and partnership ^[ii]” in their endeavour. Why?