Turia Tariana: Property Law Bill — First Reading 
Turia Tariana: Property Law Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:635;Page:6464] 
TARIANA TURIA (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 Tena koe. Tena tatou te Whare. Last Friday at Te Herenga Waka Marae at the Victoria University of Wellington Ahorangi Wiremu Parker was remembered in a memorial seminar marking 20 years since his passing. Wiremu Parker had a particular association with this House. It was the Maori members of Parliament who recommended to the Cabinet of 1943 that he be appointed New Zealand’s first Maori news broadcaster. He was well known as a skilled and expert broadcaster and covered in the course of his career the return home of the 28th Maori Battalion in 1946 and the poroporoaki to Ta Apirana Ngata at his death in 1950. From 1967 Parker worked alongside Te Kapunga Koro Dewes and Professor Hirini Moko Mead teaching Maori at the Victoria University of Wellington. He was a respected academic a skilled Maori language expert a kaumatua an adviser and an editorial consultant. 
So it seemed apt in considering the Property Law Bill to turn to his words from 1978 included in a collection of essays commemorating the silver jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. He stated: “For ever so long land has been central in Maori thought. The source of his physical sustenance of his very blood from time immemorial the object of deep emotional attachment in song poetry and oratory the prized heritage of tribe and [whanau] and lay at the very core of a people’s mana. Land was for ever.” Parker’s comments in  
The Substance That Remains 
 indicate the strength of association that tangata whenua attribute to being Maori and the inherent relationship with the land. The two are inseparable. 
And so it is that when we read in clause 8 of the Property Law Bill the statement that this bill applies to all land in New Zealand we consider the guardianship the custodial rights the stewardship the ancestral relationship that tangata whenua have with land. Yet curiously that statement is later qualified with a rider that this bill “does not apply to Maori customary land”. The Maori Party will be seeking responses during the select committee consideration of this bill as to the inherent contradiction in this one clause as to whether Maori land is marginalised or detached from the whole. 
We understand that a fundamental protocol of statutory interpretation is that the specific overrides the general. In effect this means that the specific rules pertaining to Maori land are contained within Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993 and that these specific provisions prevail over the general provisions in the Property Law Bill. Notwithstanding this qualification we know it to be reasonable to state that approximately 220 pieces of legislation have been passed in this House that have had the intent or effect of taking or weakening Maori land and property rights in some way or another. We can only assume that the devil is in the detail with this bill as well. 
The Property Law Bill seeks to replace the Property Law Act of 1952 by restating revising reforming and codifying particular aspects of the law relating to real and personal property. The Law Commission’s report  
A New Property Law Act 
 suggested that the 1952 Act was largely a compilation of many outdated and miscellaneous rules some dating back even to one of New Zealand’s earliest pieces of legislation the Conveyancing Ordinance of 1842. This infamous piece of legislation was passed to facilitate the transfer of real property from Maori to settlers and missionaries. It specified protocols around the buying selling leasing and mortgaging of land through introducing the deed system. Some Maori called it the beginning of the end in initiating a path of land alienation that made land vulnerable for exploitation and fragmentation. The 1952 Act is therefore well overdue for revision. 
Around the same time in 1953 the Maori Affairs Act brought together related legislation connecting Maori land to the system of property law. Some 25 years later in 1978 the Government of the day consulted the Maori Council about the adequacy of the legislation and the council’s conclusions were reported to the Minister of Maori Affairs the Hon Ben Couch in a report entitled  
Wahanga Tuatahi 
. The recommendations that were made in this report eventually became Te Ture Whenua Maori Act in 1993. It should be noted for the record that the bill introducing that Act came during the term of a National Government. 
I have taken the time to provide a brief background to both the Property Law Bill and Te Ture Whenua Maori Act because the relationship between the two is vital. During the course of the deliberations of the legislative review committee of the New Zealand Maori Council it issued a statement in 1980 that identified the importance and relevance of land to Maori: “Maori land has several cultural connotations for us. It provides us with a sense of identity belonging and continuity. It is proof of our continued existence not only as people but as tangata whenua of this country. 
It is proof of our tribal and kin group ties. … It is proof of our link with the ancestors of our past and with the generation yet to come. It is an assurance that we shall forever exist as a people for as long as the land shall last.” 
The Maori Party comes to this new bill the Property Law Bill with these words in mind. It is vital that the relationship between the Property Law Bill and Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993 is understood. This bill is not the place to seek changes or provisions of a specialist nature. If such provisions were to be found in this bill that could engender conflict with the existing provisions of Te Ture Whenua Maori if passed into law the provisions of Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993 must prevail. As a case in point the Property Law Bill applies to transactions relating to Maori land but as an overriding requirement those transactions must be carried out in compliance with Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993 or other applicable statutes. We will be watching out at the select committee to ensure that there is nothing in this new bill that appears either to make Maori land vulnerable to sale or to threaten the kotahitanga of whanau. 
There has been some suggestion that the tribalisation of whenua Maori may be an aspiration Maori want to explore in further depth. The fragmentation of Maori land under the introduced system inherent in individual land title has not served Maori well in the past or even today. The system of shares and shareholders fragments and disrupts tribal ownership. It may well be that tribalising land and building on developments such as the whenua topu trusts available under section 216 of Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993 are ideas outside the scope of this bill but they certainly are not outside the realms of possibility. 
The Maori Party considers that general property law relating to mortgages leases deeds of settlement and suchlike does and will continue to inform Te Ture Whenua Maori Act. As such the reforms to clarify and codify the law relating to mortgagee sales cancellation of leases by lessors purchase breaches and the creation and delivery of deeds will inevitably be of interest to Maori lawyers to property owners to mortgagors to purchasers and to trusts. We will be looking particularly to see that the provisions in Te Ture Whenua Maori Act relating to matters of interest in this bill are sufficient on their own to protect Maori land and Maori landowners. If indeed such analysis comes up wanting we will be asking whether changes are needed to Te Ture Whenua Maori Act to better protect Maori land and Maori landowners. 
Our fundamental interest in supporting this new Property Law Bill at its first reading is in providing an opportunity for the people to have access to the debate around issues of such consequence. Our overriding concern will be watching to see what sort of impact the changes proposed to general property laws in this bill will have on how the law is interpreted in relation to Te Ture Whenua Maori Act for Maori land and Maori landowners. 
From the burying of the placenta of newborn children the placement of our whenua with the whenua through to the burial of the dead Maori are in every sense tangata whenua—people of the land. The spiritual and ancestral connections we have as tangata whenua are vital to our ongoing identity. As the late Ahorangi Wiremu Parker reminds us land is forever. It is with this in our mind therefore that the Maori Party takes a particular interest in the Property Law Bill as affecting values and concepts that are core to our life as tangata whenua. Tena koe. 
Bill read a first time. 
Bill referred to the Justice and Electoral Committee.referred to Justice and Electoral Committee