April 09, 2021
Rating change puts Maori landowners in stronger position
Māori Development Minister Nanaia Mahuta says writing off rate arrears on Māori land will be good for both Māori landowners and councils.
The new Local Government (Rating of Whenua Māori) Act allows council chief executives to write off arrears, and makes some land, such as that put into Ngā Whenua Rāhui for conservation purposes, to be unrateable.
Ms Mahuta says over the years arrears have accumulated on Māori land, which councils know are they can never collect, so the change won’t affect councils’ income.
"What it does provide is an opportunity for landowners to become engaged with their whenua and then start to form their governance entity and think about what to do with their whenua and that's a far better position for Māori landowners to be in and over time have a productive conversation with councils around the utilisation of their whenua," she says.
The amendment also reverses a provision that allowed councils to declare Māori land abandoned and sell it off for rates arrears, and those blocks will go back to being Māori land.
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