September 25, 2019
Land law reform falls short
Changes to Māori land law are being welcomed by a leading Māori lawyer, but in some areas the Government needs to go harder.
Willie Te Aho says Te Ture Whenua Amendment Bill picks up some of the issues identified during the previous Government's controversial effort to completely rewrite the law.
It covers areas such as successions, making it easier for people to succeed to land without a full court hearing, and allowing changes in trustees without needing an extensive court process.
The issues of whether whāngai or adoptees can succeed to land has been left to hapū to determine based on their own tikanga, but Mr Te Aho says the law fails to address the historic anomaly in the 1960s version of the law that allowed non-Māori spouses or spouses with no blood connection to allow shares in land.
"What the previous Minister attempted to do was address that by putting a term on how long people could stay in Māori land. It was a sleight of hand that allowed people to buy into Māori land with no whakapapa. They need to bring that up, they need to tackle it, so that is on where I don't think they have gone far enough," he says.
Mr Te Aho is also pleased to see new dispute resolution mechanisms that could involve experts in tikanga rather than judges.
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