A proposed Tauranga City Council policy for tangata whenua aspirations of owning council land is failing to generate an expected public response.
Council adopted the Draft Tangata Whenua Land Proposal policy on January 30 for consultation through the draft Annual Plan process.
Photo: File.
When just 11 submissions were received, TCC opted for a stand-alone consultation process which, when completed in August, generated six more submissions.
Submissions were heard by councillors at Wednesday's City Vision Committee meeting.
The policy's intent is to secure protocol for TCC in dealing with Maori who want land ownership returned.
It concerns formerly confiscated land or lands taken under the Public Works Act that are no longer used for the purposes under which they were taken.
It does not affect privately-owned land.
It is for land TCC has mostly ‘inherited' through the course of local body restructuring.
The policy is two years in the making, and two bids by Maori for different parcels of surplus council land are currently stalled while the process is worked through.
One bid relates to an area of land identified for disposal in Council's Property Portfolio review and another relates to the potential gifting of the Mauao Recreation Reserve to Ngai Te Rangi Iwi.
Mount Maunganui resident Rob Paterson says the draft policy is a mechanism to keep arrangements out of the public eye until it is too late and the deal is done.
He says the policy is undemocratic, reeks of racial bias and discrimination, and encourages secret squirrel deals being done away from the public forum.
Richard Prince is concerned about valuation criteria, particularly the level of ‘significance' ascribed to any land in question, which will affect whether it is transferred at market value, discounted value or gifted.
Significance is not just historical and physical, but also metaphysical, says Richard.
He's concerned the arbiters of the significance are the claimants. He says the policy is privatisation – the transfer of assets owned by the community to a few.
Puhirake Ihaka made submission on behalf of the Tauranga Moana Tangata Whenua Collective, the Otamataha Trust and the Ngati Tapu hapu. He supports the continuation of the process.
'We have attended various workshops in terms of putting together the policy and it has now come to the stage where I repeat it here today, and again express our desire to continue with this process.”
Des Heke recommended the council do its homework, and study Maori Land Court records concerning the provenance of any such land it puts to the market.
The committee received the submissions.
4 comments
Submissions
Posted on 17-09-2014 16:01 | By Jitter
TCC received very few submissions as ratepayers know from past experience that they would be wasting their time. TCC should have realised by now that they have to seriously consider submissions and not just go through the motions to make themselves feel good. Steve Morris should no better than to make a stupid remark like that. I'm afraid that both Rob Paterson and Richard Prince are correct in what they say. We are heading for a situation where the whole country is controlled by 14.1% of the population. Central government is no better. You only have to read the party policies to see that.
Rogue use
Posted on 17-09-2014 16:11 | By YOGI BEAR
of process to get even more land off the citizens of NZ, the treaty stuff has already been done and finished, this is "round two". Private land holdings will be next.
Good.
Posted on 17-09-2014 19:15 | By Blasta
Fair enough too. The land originally belonged to the Maori and we 'confiscated' it. Anyone against this process is against what's fair and right and therefore bigoted, racist and ignorant.
Blasta is a bit harsh, ....
Posted on 18-09-2014 08:55 | By Murray.Guy
The land belongs to 'no man', just bye the bye, being not created by him only abused and used. In regards how land tenure was acquired by one party or other depends on one's perception and likely tainted by a perceived benefit. Few deny that historically there have been actions on the part of the Crown that we consider grossly inappropriate (they continue today) and in regards Maori significant steps are underway by the Crown to address those. The process specifically excludes those assets in private ownership and that by local authorities, and in the Treaty Settlement redress processes, this is taken in to account and in part compensated for (in part). It is NOT unreasonable therefore, for folk to express concern, in some cases outrage, at what may appear to be a demand to have two bites of the cake. There are other options BUT ignored!
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to make a comment.