Kia ora koutou e te whānau,

We trust you have had safe and happy Easter and ANZAC long weekends.
As it would seem like everything has gone very quiet, and it has, we thought you might appreciate a brief update.
At this stage we have not heard from the Ministry of Culture and Heritage or the Office of the Ombudsman as to the steps that the Ministry intend to take to resolve the grievances their “deficient” and “unreasonable” process has caused.
We are still waiting on the results of the investigation by the Chief Ombudsman into Auckland Council for the non-notification of resource consent and their consultation process. It is anticipated that will be at least another few weeks.
Also, we have not had an update from the Petitions Select Committee, or the Māori Affairs Committee, both of whom put their processes on hold awaiting the report from the Ombudsman (released 27 March 2022). We have forwarded them the report.
We are still on the gates each day but have scaled back shifts to give the team a break. We believe it would be inappropriate for any activity to occur on site while these important democratic processes take place; and have advised the Ministry to this effect.
We will be in contact again as soon as we have any further updates.
As always thank you for your ongoing support to protect what exists.

Ngā mihi nui,

Dame Naida Glavish, Margaret Brough and the Protect Mataharehare Team