Boost for low-income Maori in ETS deal

A pledge to fund insulation retrofits in low-income Maori households is part of National's deal with the Maori Party on the emissions trading scheme (ETS).

Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples said yesterday that the Government had agreed to fund 100 per cent of the cost of retrofitting insulation into 2000 low-income Maori households around the country.

He said the pledge and a promise by National to reconsider Ngai Tahu's multimillion-dollar forestry claim were part of its deal with National to support the new ETS.

National refused to agree to a proposal to raise benefit levels for Maori to compensate them for the extra costs imposed on households by the scheme.

The proposals were not mentioned when Prime Minister John Key and Climate Change Minister Nick Smith announced the deal on Monday.

At his Monday post-Cabinet press conference, Key said the Maori Party's gains were the cut in the additional bills households would face for petrol and electricity under the scheme and the benefits Maori landholders and fishermen would reap from more generous Government carbon subsidies for agriculture and industry.

It now appears specific gains for Maori are still being discussed.

Under the Warm Up New Zealand scheme announced in this year's Budget, homeowners can apply for a 33 per cent subsidy on the cost of fitting insulation or a heat pump.

Low-income households with community services cards can get up to a 60 per cent subsidy.

Sharples said the Maori Party had negotiated a 100 per cent subsidy for 2000 Maori houses.

"We've got 2000 houses without them having to pay any money at all because our people are not availing themselves of the opportunity to get their houses insulated because they couldn't afford the $2500," he said.

Asked to confirm this was for Maori only, Sharples said: "Yeah, these are particularly Maori."

In Parliament, Key confirmed the negotiations but said a deal had not yet been reached.

Asked whether the Government was considering giving additional insulation funding for Maori only, Smith's office refused to comment, saying only that it was working on home insulation for low-income households with the Maori Party.

Smith's office confirmed that the Government was considering Maori Party pleas to re-enter negotiations with Ngai Tahu over the costs the tribe faces for logging its Treaty of Waitangi forests under the ETS.

Ngai Tahu says it is facing a bill of between $40 million and $120m if forests on land it gained as part of its Treaty of Waitangi settlement are logged.

The iwi bought its forest land from the Crown in 2001, intending to convert it to farming once forestry licences expired.

Ngai Tahu says the Crown knew when it sold the forests that an ETS was likely to lower their value.

Smith has previously refused to entertain the claim, saying Ngai Tahu's position is no different from any other forestry owner.

Sharples said Ngai Tahu's claim was now back on the table.

"It has to be. That was the undertaking they [National] gave us," he said.

"The value of their forests have gone down, and my understanding is that is one of the areas they are going to look at."