July 29, 2020
Small steps in Maori land law reform
A lawyer with extensive experience managing Māori land says amendments to Te Ture Whenua Māori Act don’t go far enough.
The amendments passed last week include a simplified process for successions and a tikanga-based dispute resolution system rather than having Māori land Court judges impose fixes.
Willie Te Aho says the bill failed to address long-standing concerned such as the presence on many share registers of Pākehā who bought into blocks under the law as it applied between 1967 and 1974, or the difficulties getting access to landlocked blocks.
He is also concerned about the scope of a new Māori land service.
"We want our people within each area running that service. We don't want a centrally-run service and we've proved that in Turanga in particular where we took over 60 blocks that had no governance, we called the meeting of owners, we worked through that process just to ensure we could get governance in place and then we moved through feasibility to ensure those lands were being used for the highest and best use," Mr Te Aho says.
Willie Te Aho also wants to see the Māori Trustee disestablished in favour of local control of blocks.
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