Wife wants hubbie declared 'taonga'

It could be one of the oddest claims lodged at the Waitangi Tribunal but Rosina Hauiti wants her Tongan husband recognised as a taonga under the treaty to stop a pending expulsion.

Ms Hauiti, 49, and Mofuike Fonua are set to celebrate one year of marriage this Sunday but his threatened departure has cast a dampener on the occasion, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Mr Fonua's work permit expired last November and he hasn't been granted residence status. He has lived in the country since May 2005 but has until next week to leave on his own, before a removal order is issued.

Former Immigration Minister Tuariki Delamere is representing the Tauranga couple.

In his submission for an urgent hearing to tribunal Judge Carrie Wainwright he argues that spouses within the "sanctity of marriage" are taonga, and therefore Maori are guaranteed "the right to retain their taonga" under article two of the treaty which protects assets.

Judge Wainwright has yet to issue a decision on whether she will hear the case, but has noted there is no precedent in law for regarding a person as a "taonga" as it was used in the treaty.

Mr Delamere said the Immigration Service had decided the marriage was not legitimate but that was not an area it should be poking its nose into.

The issue was a human rights one, not a Maori one, but after a year of trying to get "some sense" from Immigration the tribunal was the last option left to the couple.

Ms Hauiti said that in August the service offered Mr Fonua a limited-purposes visa provided he left the country after surgery for a rugby injury.

But she said their lives were in New Zealand and the offer amounted to "blackmail".

She said a near-20-year age gap between the pair, and their past domestic violence issues, could be why Immigration did not believe the marriage was legitimate.

NZPA