September 28, 2021
Cold shoulder for warmed over Māori land Bill
A Te Tairāwhiti tribal leader says Māoridom has moved on from the National’s failed effort to rewrite Māori land law.
National’s Treaty of Waitangi spokesperson and Southland MP Joseph Mooney has had his Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill pulled from the ballot.
It’s the same Bill his predecessor Chris Finlayson tried to get passed while in Government, but which stalled in the face of fierce Māori opposition.
Willie Te Aho, who was a supporter of the original Bill, says it still fails to resolve longstanding issues like accessing landlocked land.
He says smaller changes by Labour to Te Ture Whenua Māori, and a large investment in Māori land development through the Provincial Growth Fund’s Whenua Māori component has changed the picture on the ground.
He says his own iwi wants to do better for its people.
“What does that look like? It looks like us managing our lands for ourselves so we don’t need a Māori Land Court, we don’t need a Te Puni Kokiri, we’ve actually got the ability to manage our lands and resolve our disputes ourselves. I guess that’s the ultimate of mana motuhake when you look at people like Te Whānau ā Apanui,” Mr Te Aho says,