Maori Party Seeks Protection of Ancestral Land

te-pati-maori

Tue Apr 05 2011 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Maori Party Seeks Protection of Ancestral Land

Tuesday, 5 April 2011, 2:38 pm
Press Release: The Maori Party

MEDIA STATEMENT

Rahui Katene

Maori Party law spokesperson

Tuesday, 05 April 2011

Maori Party Seeks Protection of Ancestral Land

The Maori Party wants the Government to remove part of a proposed law that could stop people with interests in multiply-owned ancestral Maori land from getting legal aid and therefore seeking justice.

Under the Legal Services Bill, which comes before Parliament today for a clause by clause debate, people who are applying for legal aid to pursue a civil proceeding could be declined if they have interests in Maori ancestral land.

“A part of this bill disadvantages Maori people because they have interests in multiply-owned Maori land – land that has been passed down from generation to generation and that should continue to be,” said Rahui Katene, the Maori Party law spokesperson.

“Having shares in Maori land is not necessarily a commercial interest, but more so a cultural interest that is not purchased, that should not be sold and that should not be classed as one’s own personal asset.

“The majority of people with shares in multiply-owned Maori land don’t see personal wealth or income from that land because the benefits are usually spread communally among the shareholders, their children and mokopuna which can number thousands of people in one land block.”

Mrs Katene said clause five of schedule one in the bill was against the whole kaupapa of Te Ture Whenua Maori Act which is about retention of Maori land.

“Maori land ownership is about whakapapa, it is not the same as Pakeha or general land ownership.”

Mrs Katene will be submitting an amendment today that the clause be removed.

ENDS

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