Former top cop plays key role in Canterbury huts dispute

Wally Haumaha.

A former high-profile police officer is playing a key role in negotiations between Greenpark Huts bach owners and Ngāi Tahu.

Time is ticking for the remaining 12 bach owners who must leave by June 30 or face being trespassed.

Former police deputy commissioner Wally Haumaha was contracted by Ngāi Tahu to liaise with bach owners about a year ago, and provide feedback to Ngāi Tahu.

When at the huts, he is often accompanied by Ngāi Tahu general manager Fiona McQuade.

But two people say at times they have felt “intimidated” by his direct manner.

Said bach owner Ross Wilson: “He comes across quite smooth, but he’s actually pretty intimidating.”

Said another bach owner Dianne Magill: “He just tries to intimidate really.”

Haumaha rejects the characterisation and says he has maintained professionalism.

“That’s the easiest thing for them to jump to mate. There has been no bullying, there has been no intimidation, it has just been straight negotiations.

“My position has been professional in supporting Ngāi Tahu in the best way possible to go through that process.”

He said leaseholders knew the deadline for leaving and he was only reaffirming the process.

“Once the leases expire a process kicks in and that process is not up to me, it’s up to Ngāi Tahu.

“We’re only carrying a message,” Haumaha said.

Bach owners say the most recent example of feeling intimidated was about two weeks ago, when he warned them if they did not leave by June 30 they would be trespassed.

On the same day there were several security guards present while fences were being put up around a property Ngāi Tahu had taken possession of in order to demolish, which Magill said also came across as “intimidating”.

Haumaha said he was not involved in hiring the security guards.

He told Selwyn Times where possible he has tried to communicate the concerns of the bach owners to Ngāi Tahu, which he said included giving them a year’s extension, until June 30 this year, and getting Ngāi Tahu to agree to pay for demolition costs.

In 2020, Ngāi Tahu told bach owners it would not renew their leases. It said they would have until June 30, 2024, to leave and clear the sites of any structures.

Ngāi Tahu has not publicly confirmed what the process will be once the leases expire.

In the leaseholder agreement bach owners signed, it states if the leases were to end all removal costs would be covered at their own expense. Despite that, the remaining bach owners are still fighting for compensation for the value of their baches.

Legally because the land is owned by Ngāi Tahu if trespass notices are issued on June 30 a reasonable amount of time must be given to enable someone to leave, after which police can remove people who refuse to go.

Bach owners could fight the trespass notices in court.

Haumaha was largely praised for 40 years in the police.

But in 2018, an Independent Police Conduct Authority report found his behaviour “belittling and humiliating” while working on a government project.

It found he was “inappropriate and unprofessional” in regards to two staff complaints about him, but that it did not meet the definition of workplace bullying.

Haumaha told

Selwyn Times

there was “no substance” to the 2018 allegations.