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November 03, 2021
Landbank best option for Taipa resolution
Adam Gifford
Posted On November 3, 2021
Download AudioFormer New Zealand First MP Shane Jones says the precedent set with Ihumaatao should be used to resolve an occupation at Taipa.
Ngāti Kahu members are occupying a bit of open land where the river meets the beach, which they say should be land banked for future settlement.
Mr Jones says it’s the landing place of Māmaru waka, and its loss in colonial times has been an ongoing source of grievance.
Ngāti Kahu maintains the land was a tuku or conditional gift to its first European inhabitant, a doctor, and should have been returned when he left the area, but wound up in private ownership.
He says it should have been bought by the crown after an occupation in 2010, as it is essentially unsaleable on the private market.
“The title is tainted in the sense you can’t give clear title when you’ve got 70 to 100 people coming and going, living on the block of land, so I think there’s a precedent there in terms of Ihumaatao for the crown to buy it and land bank it and (owner) Todd (Male) can get some money and get on with his life and Ngāti Kahu can over time dedicate that land to some tribally-empowering purpose,” Mr Jones says.
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