Joe Trinder

The findings from the Waitangi Tribunal on Wai 2478 as filed by Marise Lant have justified concerns that the changes being made by Minister of Maori Development Te Ururoa Flavell to the Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993.  The Waitangi Tribunal has rejected the changes to the bill based on there has not been enough consultation with Maori land owners.

Are the reforms being rushed through Parliament by March this year as part of a bundle Trade Minister Todd Maclay is pushing through Parliament to be compliant with the TPPA. This is in order to prevent the opposition cherry picking parts of the TPPA reforms they don’t approve of. Of course if the opposition reject the bundle then National can claim the opposition are against trade and irresponsible.

Trade Minister Todd Mclay couldn’t bundle the Te Ture Whenua Act in so this duty has been delegated to the Maori party MP  Te Ururoa Flavell. The problem being the Maori Party publicly reject the TPPA.

The dangers of the Te Ture Whenua Act is it is being done urgently under the guise of making Maori land more productive and encourage investment when it has the possibility to unleash another land confiscation allowing large foreign corporations with new powers introduced by the TPPA the option to get rights to Maori land.

There has been some very strange behaviour on behalf of the supporters of the Te Ture Whenua reforms. Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson declared the Waitangi Tribunal findings “bizare” on the day they were released.  Most rational people who have read the Waitangi Tribunal publication find it reasonable in asking for more consultation. For example when the bill was initially drafted consultations took 30 years.

In Hastings yesterday MP Te Ururoa Flavell moved his own resolution to continue consultation rounds. It’s abnormal to conduct a meeting put forward a resolution and then move forward your own resolution. Why invite other people to your hui ? The Minister then threatened his audience that he will pass the bill anyway because combined with the National Party he has the numbers in Parliament. The Te Ture Whenua reforms have now become an election issue.

In the first round of consultations TPK employees showed a slideshow of the Te Ture Whenua Act and didn’t ask for input from Maori land owners. This consultation was considered due diligence on behalf of the Government.

The submission from the Maori land court has pointed out some major stumbling blocks for the reforms being “High risk approach to law reform” the new legislation will reduce input from Maori land owners and  give that control to Government departments who in turn can offer control to corporations introduced by the TPPA.

The Government has blocked the Waitangi Tribunal from reading the Maori land court assessment of the of the Te Ture Whenua Maori Bill.

If the reforms are genuine and not part of the TPPA considering principled institutions have challenged the reforms then Maori Development Minister Te Ururoa Flavell should consider consultations taking  another two decades instead of rushing the reforms to coincide with the TPPA reforms.

Here is the schedule of Hui being held around the country click here

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1602/Wai_2478__Chapter_03_PrePublication.pdf

https://secure.zeald.com/site/uma/files/TeTureWhenua.pdf