Ratings Changes to Encourage Māori Land Development

Hon Te Ururoa Flavell
Minita Whanaketanga Māori
Minister for Māori Development
Minita Tuarua Whanaketanga Ohaoha
Associate Minister for Economic Development

Cabinet has agreed to provide local Councils with more workable and equitable tools to deal with issues around the rating of unused and unoccupied Māori land.

Local councils already have the ability to remit rates on general and Māori land. However this proposed change clarifies the law around the rating of unoccupied and unused Māori land.

The changes will provide councils the ability to remove rates arrears on unoccupied and unused Māori land where there is:
• a demonstrable commitment to use or occupy land;
• there is little prospect of the land ever being used or occupied.

The proposal has arisen out of a review of Māori land law which aims to make it easier for Māori land owners to make decisions about their land while ensuring its retention. Rates arrears were identified as one of the major barriers to Māori land use at consultation hui held on the Ture Whenua Bill last year.

Māori Development Minister, Te Ururoa Flavell, says Māori land law has been convoluted and difficult for owners to deal with for 150 years.

“It is more prescriptive than the law covering any other land in New Zealand. This has resulted in large tracts of Māori land remaining unproductive.

“This ratings proposal will create a clean slate for owners who want to use or occupy undeveloped land but are laden with ratings debt,” he says.

The majority of unused Māori land is in the rural areas of Northland, East Coast and the Central North Island.

“This ratings change will incentivise Māori land owners to use their land which will in turn provide a boost to the local economy,” says Mr Flavell who is also Associate Minister for Economic Development.

Northland, East Coast and the Bay of Plenty are among the high priority regions identified by the Government for economic development.

Other changes include the removal of a two hectare non-rating limit for marae and urupā (burial grounds), and that Māori land subject to Ngā Whenua Rahui covenants will not be rated. This brings the rates for Māori land use of this nature in line with similar uses of general land including the non-rating of churches, cemeteries and QEII covenanted land.

A new approach to the valuation of Māori land for rating purposes will also be developed.

The changes to the ratings framework for Māori land will be made via Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill and in amendments to the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002, the Local Government Act 2002, and the Rating Valuation Act 1998.

The Ture Whenua Māori Bill will be introduced into Parliament early this year.

ENDS

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