November 01, 2015
Tribunal rejects gag on judges
The Waitangi Tribunal has rejected the Crown’s attempt to suppress the Maori Land Court judges’ submission on a new Maori land law, and it’s ordered it to hand over the 163 page document by noon.
The tribunal will hold a hearing next week on claims some of the proposed reforms could breach the principles of the treaty of Waitangi.
Crown Law argued the release of the submission on the so called exposure draft of te Ture Whenua Maori Bill would breach constitutional conventions about relations between the judiciary and the executive.
Tribunal panel chair Ron Crosby says the submission was made at the request of the Ministerial Advisory Group overseeing the rewrite of the bill, which was set up to be independent of the executive.
He says openness about the judges’ opinion of how the bill may work in practice should raise public confidence.
Mr Crosby says as the submission has been available for several weeks on the Radio Waatea website, suppressing it would have a strange outcome that everyone at the hearing but the tribunal members would be aware of its contents.
Issues to be considered at next week’s hearing will include whether the repeal and reform of Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993 was being conducted in a manner inconsistent with the principles of the Treaty, whether the reform proposals increase the risk of alienation of Maori land, and whether compliance and transactional costs on Maori landowners will go up.
The tribunal also has questions about the new corporate structures being proposed, the new powers being given to so called participating owners, the way succession will work, and the treatment of whangai.
TO READ THE SUBMISSIONS CLICK ON THE LINK
Te Ture Whenua Maori Bill Submission of the Judges of the Māori Land Court
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