Limitation Bill - First Reading
Tuesday 4 August 2009; 4.10pm
Hon Tariana Turia, Co-leader of the Maori Party

This Bill is part of a recurring theme, to update legislation in such a way as to be clearer, more comprehensible, and more accessible.

It is also another piece of legislation which wears the influence of the Law Commission.

The Law Commission, in their 2007 report Limitation Defences in Civil Claims, recommended many of the changes which are set out in this Bill.

The Maori Party has a special interest in one clause – clause 26.

Clause 26 is the one that we would turn to, for any explanation of how the limitation defence rules apply for Maori customary land. That clause gathers together all of the rules concerning Maori customary land into one provision.

While we are happy for the legislation to be updated, we do have some concerns around clause 26.

The problem is not about the clustering of provisions into one place – it is more fundamental than that – it is about the purpose of having such a clause included at all.

We do not believe that there should be any limitation periods applied to Maori customary land claims.

All limitation periods pertaining to Maori customary land need to be removed, they should not be there, and this is a chance to actually make that change now.

Because in practice, the limitation provisions are yet another mechanism by which Maori customary land can in fact become Crown land and we have a lot of experience of that.

Clause 26 of this new Bill specifies that nothing in the Act should limit or affect section 344 of Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993. And in effect this means that Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993 takes precedence, and this should not change.

While the Bill has sought to clarify provisions of when the time period starts to run, it is not always simple because of the complexity of Maori land law and management. It is not always clear what is and what isn’t customary land.

There have been many instances where Crown assumptions of statutory extinguishment don’t hold up under investigation – the foreshore and seabed being perhaps the most well known example!

These are issues for the Waitangi Tribunal to investigate, or for further dialogue with hapü and iwi, without limitation.

And because of this, it becomes very problematic to put a time limit on claims – it gives the Crown the advantage – which, in the interests of justice, it should not have.

The Maori Party considers that the general philosophy needs to be different.

The philosophy might be that when comes to matters of Maori customary land, that the conditions for the ongoing Crown-Maori Treaty relationship are prioritised, not a limitation date.

It is through that the Treaty relationship that matters can be continuously worked at, so that there is the time to discuss and work through new matters as they come to attention.

This is a key issue for discussion at select committee, and the Maori Party looks forward to participating further to that debate.

In order to enable the debate to proceed, we will be supporting the Bill at this first reading.

ENDS

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