August 24, 2015
Land act reform delayed for more work
Maori Development Minister Te Ururoa Flavell says a controversial reform of Maori land law won’t be brought back to parliament before next year.
Mr Flavell had hoped to pass the new Te Ture Whenua Maori this year, but feedback from hui is the bill he inherited from his predecessor Pita Sharples and associate minister Christopher Finlayson had significant gaps.
He says he wants to extend the scope of the bill.
"The Ture Whenua Act by itself was never going to make too much change to the ability of people to make developments on their land or with their land, so what we have done is added other work streams that were part of it. For example, dealing with issues of landlocked land, dealing with issues about the Resource Management Act, dealing with issues about paper roads, rating, valuations, issues that were raised by our people but which were never a part of the original work stream," Mr Flavell says.
There will be more consultation as the bill develops to ensure it can work not just for major land incorporations but for the smaller trusts as well.
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