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A group of Northland Maori opposed to the building of a prison at Ngawha say they are disgusted at government payments to a small group which supports the project.
The Corrections Minister Mark Gosche has told Parliament that the Corrections department has paid about seventy-thousand-dollars to the Ngati Rangi hapu development committee for iwi consultation.
Under the Resource Management Act, the department consults and works with tangata whenua.
But Mere Mangu, one of the objectors, says the development committee does not represent the full hapu and the payments have divided the community.
She says the wedge has been driven deeper by the Corrections Department decision to sue the prison objectors, for more than $600,000, in court costs.
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