How to make Maori land productive
Our political this week asks what steps would they like to see introduced to increase the productivity of unused Ma¯ori land and secondly, would they support a return to 20 as the legal age to purchase alcohol?
The decision on what to do with the land will remain in the hands of the land owners, but the Bill will make it harder to sell Ma¯ ori land.
At present, Ma¯ ori freehold land can be sold with 75 per cent support from all shareholders, this will remain the minimum requirement, but owners can increase the threshold up to 100 per cent.
The Bill also provides easier ways to set up trusts and a fairer system of rating Ma¯ ori land which addresses one of the major barriers to owners using their land.
The proposed Ma¯ ori Land Service will also provide services and support for Ma¯ ori land owners.
The Whenua Ma¯ ori Fund, which opened in February 2016, is providing $12.8 million over four years to support and empower Ma¯ ori landowners to utilise whenua Ma¯ ori as they see fit.
It helps owners of Ma¯ ori land to explore different uses of their land and ways of boosting its productivity.
So far more than 40 projects supporting Ma¯ ori land owners have been funded.
In 2012 I was among MPS who voted to keep the purchase age at 20.
The majority of the Parliament voted in this conscience vote to reduce to the age to 18. Five years has passed. As a Government we are happy with our current alcohol law settings and there are no plans at this stage to revisit the issue.
We’ve reformed alcohol laws to better moderate our drinking culture and give communities a say on alcohol in their neighbourhoods.
We’ve tightened laws around supplying alcohol to minors, and restricted display and promotion of alcohol.
We’ve also introduced tougher penalties for serious and repeat drink drivers, and more road safety intervention measures such as alcohol interlocks for vehicles.
Bailees and community-based offenders are also now required to undergo drug and alcohol testing.
However, legislation alone cannot turn around our drinking culture. We are all responsible for creating social change.
While we understand the need to address alcohol-related harm, we don’t want to scapegoat younger people as there are older New Zealanders who also should address how they’re drinking.
The key to seeing fewer young people binge drinking is more education around the effects.
Our reforms have provided all parts of society – central and local government, communities, parents, young people and industry – with tools to help make a change for the better.
At the same time, we are also conscious to take a balanced approach that doesn’t unfairly penalise responsible and moderate drinkers.
And I believe we have struck the right balance with the current law.
No response was received from these candidates.