September 08, 2016
Public works land grabs still hurting
Green MP Catherine Delahunty says there needs to be a full inquiry into the impact of the Public Works Act on Maori land.
Her bill which seeks to stop the Act being used to take Maori land in future is now awaiting its first reading.
It was inspired by the battle fought by writer Patricia Grace to prevent whanau land being taken for the Kapiti Expressway.
Ms Delahunty says every whanau seems to have a story about similar losses.
She says the area is riddled with anomalies, such as treaty settlement provisions that allow the crown to offer surplus land to charitable trusts instead of offering it back to descendants of the original owners.
"This whole area of what has happened to land under Public Works, what has haoppened under the treaty settlements, what is right of first refusal because it's not first refusal, these are all issues that in the 21st century should have been resolved but are still unresolved, still causing hurt, and the Grace whanau story is a classic example," Ms Delahunty says.
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