<P> In June 1986, the Waitangi Tribunal received the Wai 26 claim that the Treaty of Waitangi was breached by the Crown proceeding to introduce legislation related to Māori language before the delivery of the Tribunal's Report on the Te Reo Maori Claim . As a consequence, the Māori people would be denied their claims for radio frequencies and a television channel . </P> <P> In June 1990 claim Wai 150 was lodged by Sir Graham Latimer on behalf of the New Zealand Māori Council . The claim was in respect of the Rangatiratanga over the allocation of radio frequencies; the claim being that in the absence of an agreement with the Māori, the sale of frequency management licences under the Radiocommunications Act 1989 would be in breach of the Treaty of Waitangi . The Waitangi Tribunal amalgamated the Wai 26 with the Wai 150 claim . The final report of the Tribunal recommended that the Crown suspend the radio frequency tender process and proceed to negotiate with the Iwi . </P> <P> The Ngāi Tahu Maori Trust Board filed the claim with the Waitangi Tribunal in 1986 . The claim covered nine different areas and was heard over two years from 1987 . The Tribunal released its three - volume report in 1991--at that time it was the tribunal's most comprehensive inquiry . It found that' the Crown acted unconscionably and in repeated breach of the Treaty of Waitangi' in its land dealings with the tribe, and recommended substantial compensation . Ngāi Tahu also filed a claim in regards to commercial fisheries, in regards to which the Tribunal released its report in 1993 . Ngāi Tahu settled with the Crown in 1998, and received $170 million in compensation, an apology, and the return of its sacred mountain Aoraki / Mount Cook (the tribe later gifted this back to the Nation). </P> <P> On 2 July 2011 the Tribunal released its long - awaited report into the Wai 262 claim: "Ko Aotearoa Tēnei" (' This is Aotearoa' or' This is New Zealand'). The Wai 262 claim concerns the ownership of, and rights to, mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) in respect of indigenous flora and fauna . The Wai 262 claim, and the subsequent Ko Aotearoa Tēnei report, is unusual in Tribunal terms because of its wide scope and the contemporary nature of the issues being grappled with . It was the Tribunal's first' whole - of - government' inquiry, and considers more than 20 government departments and agencies, and makes recommendations as to reforms of "laws, policies or practices relating to health, education, science, intellectual property, indigenous flora and fauna, resource management, conservation, the Māori language, arts and culture, heritage, and the involvement of Māori in the development of New Zealand's positions on international instruments affecting indigenous rights ." </P>

The waitangi tribunal makes final decisions about grievances under the treaty of waitangi