Iwi chairpersons from across the country are calling for a moratorium on sale of state homes.
Sonny Tau Photo: Te Runanga a Iwi o Ngapuhi
The Government has announced it will sell more Housing New Zealand stock while expecting community providers and iwi to provide more social housing.
More than 50 chairs of iwi runanga, including Ngapuhi, Te Arawa and Ngai Tahu, and their advisors are taking part in the Iwi Chairs Forum in Tauranga this week.
The forum has passed a resolution calling for the sale of the houses to stop until a sale agreement is reached between iwi and the Government.
The forum's housing spokesperson, Sonny Tau, said many iwi were not in a position to make any commercial decisions because they had not received Treaty settlements yet.
Mr Tau said his iwi, Ngapuhi, was one of those and Housing New Zealand should not be selling anything that could be part of a settlement.
The minister responsible for Housing New Zealand, Bill English, would not commit to putting a moratorium in place.
However, Mr English said the ministry was speaking with the iwi chairs often and would not do anything that cuts across their interests.