– Penny Hales

I was listening to Radio New Zealand on Tuesday, April 7 and in particular to an interview with Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour at 5.50am.

Mr Seymour was talking about ACT withdrawing its support for the bill that would ban greyhound racing in New Zealand.

Mr Seymour stated that while they believe that greyhound racing has run its course, there are people who are affected by the law change.

Some 1000 people who have invested everything into this sport and have now lost everything.

Mr Seymour went on to say that “there had been a suggestion that these people would be reimbursed in some way, however, this is no longer part of the bill.

Mr Seymour stated that if the Government was going to wipe out an industry by intentionally banning it, not as a secondary consequence, but intentionally making someone’s property worthless then they deserve some sort of compensation.

His final statement was, “I think New Zealand needs to stop beating on small groups of people, no matter how unpopular they may be, if the Government takes away your property, then they should be compensated.”

What a sudden epiphany I experienced, and I felt an immediate need to leap up and smash the radio.

Having recently learned more about perpetual leases when Māori land was taken in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

These leases were allegedly for a period of 21 years, but tenants had an automatic right to renew the lease indefinitely. The tenants paid rent only on the unimproved value of the land.

Many of these leases were created by the Crown on land reserved for Māori, often without owner’s consent, to provide cheap land for settlers.

Many of the leases have been on sold to others or kept within the generations of families, denying Māori the right to their ancestral whenua.

To amplify the problem, Māori Trustee (Te Tumu Paeroa) have suggested that some landowners could collectively decide they want to repurpose their land, but they would have to find the money to meet the lessee’s asking price, including improvements to the land, within a very short period time.

Because much of the Māori land is held by a number of people, they often end up with very small returns on their leases – maybe $15 each landowner. How could they possibly find the finances necessary to purchase back the leases?

When in the early 1990s a review of the perpetual lease system was undertaken, it drew angry protests, including farmers who were working lands, which Māori owners lost control of a century earlier.

Proposed reforms were watered down, guaranteeing lessees the right to perpetual renewal, but allowing for seven-year rental reviews and the phasing in of market rents on the unimproved value of the land.

That being said, and I acknowledge that my understanding of perpetual leases is not full, you might be able to understand why I felt that the need to compensate greyhound racing owners and trainers did make me wonder why are we not looking at compensating the lessees for the land they have had and ensuring that the land is returned to tangata whenua?

I have been surprised at the tolerance of Māori over this.

In the articles I have seen about this matter, it appears that Māori do not believe that current lessees are in any way culpable but Māori do feel that it is incumbent on Government to make things right.

For once I found myself in accord with Mr Seymour’s stance on recompensing greyhound racers.

I now ask him to do take the same stance on behalf of Māori in the area of perpetual leases.