Land, protest and why people get grumpy
By | Mar 29, 2007
The State Owned Enterprise Landcorp is the country’s largest agricultural business. Recently they made the headlines for attempting to sell off land in the Coromandel. Maori from the small Ngati Hai iwi occupied the land in protest. The attempted sale came amidst a Treaty resolution processes, and they believed the land belonged to them. The government quickly stepped in to prevent the sale. So have things been resolved? Has justice been done? Editor of Mana Magazine Derek Fox doesn’t think so. He reflects on what’s going on.
It may look like a U-turn by the Government, but it isn’t. There has been no victory. Minister Trevor Mallard wasn’t saying the Government believe the land should be returned to Ngati Hai. He was talking in an all too familiar way about protecting the ‘right of all New Zealanders’ to have access to this land.
This land is very precious, both financially and culturally, with sites of great importance. Under the Minister’s proposal, a ‘magnanimous’ government will administer the land in a joint arrangement between the Crown and Ngati Hai. This is the same kind of legislative nonsense that we saw taking place around the foreshore and seabed. It’s an example of the disingenuous way Government deals with Maori claimants. The situation is really very sad, and unjust.
There is no doubt who that land belonged to in 1839. What happened between 1840 and 2007 that allows a government agency to sell it? They need to tell us how this land became owned by someone else. There are many instances of Land Corp obtaining land in dubious circumstances, and selling it off to the highest bidder.
One example is land not far from where I live. It was first declared a reserve without money changing hands. Then it was felt a motor camp would be good on the reserve, so a leasehold arrangement began between Landcorp and the motor camp owner. Then Land Corp offered the land for sale to the lease holder for $50,000, who onsold it shortly after for $1.4 million. It’s not an uncommon story. That’s why people get grumpy.
While Maori go through a treaty process following the letter of the law, the assets they could receive are being sold off by the Crown/Landcorp. The land then offered to Maori in the settlement process has little but heritage value, and tends to be in the middle of nowhere. That happens over and over again. The rights of Maori to their land have been eroded through the very process which was supposed to bring justice.
So what are Maori to do? What action other than direct action do we have left?
Protest is a necessary part of democracy. The Labour Party was forged from the crucible of protest but now they say it is illegal. Yet only recently the government was calling to mind the triumph of the nuclear- free policy of this country. Has it forgotten the years of protest that brought that policy into being? Protest is a necessary part of democracy, and when protest ceases, so does democracy.
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