Te Tari Whakatau

Te Tari Whakatau, also called the Office of Treaty Settlements and Takutai Moana, is a public service departmental agency in New Zealand. Its focus is resolving historical Treaty of Waitangi settlements and supporting Takutai Moana determinations.

Te Tari Whakatau

Office of Treaty Settlements and Takutai Moana (English)
Departmental agency overview
Formed	January 1, 2019 (2019-01-01)
Preceding Departmental agency	Office of Treaty Settlements
Type	Departmental Agency
Jurisdiction	New Zealand
Headquarters	Justice Centre, 19 Aitken St, Wellington, New Zealand
Minister responsible	Tama Potaka, Minister for Māori Crown Relations: Te Arawhiti
Departmental agency executive	Justine Smith, Chief Executive
Website	www.tearawhiti.govt.nz

Previously the office was known as Te Arawhiti (lit. 'The Bridge'), the Office for Māori Crown Relations and, earlier, the Office of Treaty Settlements.^[1][2][3]

History

Te Arawhiti

In 2017 the Labour-led government established a new ministerial position, the Minister for Māori Crown Relations, which was assigned to Kelvin Davis. In 2018, Davis led a public engagement process to establish the portfolio mandate which included twenty hui (meetings) attended by 1600 people and attracted 227 written or online submissions.^[4] This process led to the establishment of Te Arawhiti as a new departmental agency within the Ministry of Justice, superseding the former Office of Treaty Settlements which had been a unit within the ministry. Te Arawhiti also consolidated other existing government units, including the Crown/Māori Relations Unit, the Takutai Moana Team and the Settlement Commitments Unit.

In late May 2024, 1News reported that Te Arawhiti had overspent its budget, with expenses rising to NZ$30 million. While the previous Labour Government had allocated the agency NZ$12 million in 2023, this was not enough to cover its operating expenses including fees for settling Treaty of Waitangi claims. As a result, 200 claimants including the Ngātiwai groups were facing uncertainty in having their claims settled.^[5]

In early July 2024, Te Arawhiti proposed cutting 13 jobs. The department was directed to cut 6.5% of its budget as part of the National-led government's wider public sector cuts.^[6]

On 13 August 2024, Crown–Māori Relations Minister Tama Potaka announced that Te Arawhiti's monitoring and Treaty of Waitangi settlements compliance functions would be shifted to Te Puni Kōkiri (the Ministry for Māori Development). In response, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said that the Government "has given us a really loud message that it doesn't see itself having a contemporary relationship with iwi (tribes) post-settlement." Similarly, the Green Party's Māori Crown Relations spokesperson Steve Abel and the Labour Party's Peeni Henare condemned the restructuring as a backward step in the Crown's relationship with Māori.^[7]

Te Tari Whakatau

On 24 February 2025, the Government approved the new name the Office of Treaty Settlements and Takutai Moana: Te Tari Whakatau to reflect the agency's scaled-down functions.^[8]