Geoff Parker: New Zealand’s Land History - Beyond the ‘Stolen Land’ Slogan.

Few political slogans in New Zealand are repeated as confidently — and examined as rarely — as the claim that the country was built on “stolen land.”

The claim that Māori land in New Zealand was simply “stolen” has become a common slogan in modern political debate. It appears frequently on social media and in activist rhetoric, and is often used to support calls for co-governance, special political status.

But slogans are not history.

The reality is that Māori land passed out of tribal ownership through several very different legal processes over nearly two centuries.

Geoff Parker: Bastion Point - The Untold Context

Public discussion of Bastion Point is often framed as a simple morality tale: an unjust Crown taking followed decades later by righteous protest and inevitable redress. History is rarely that neat. When the full record is examined, Bastion Point looks less like a story of continuous bad faith and more like a sequence of decisions made — sometimes bluntly, sometimes imperfectly — but largely in good faith, according to the laws and public expectations of their time.

Compensation and the 1886 taking

Chris Penk: Going for Growth: Public Works Act overhaul

The Public Works Act will undergo its most significant reform in nearly 50-years to help unleash an infrastructure boom, Land Information Minister Chris Penk has announced.

“Removing barriers to make it faster and more affordable to build the homes Kiwis need, creating jobs through new projects and providing infrastructure to support better public services is a major part of the Government’s economic growth agenda,” Mr Penk says.

David Farrar: Caution needed with Public Works Act review

The Herald reports:

A review of legislation that gives the Crown the power to take private land for public infrastructure projects like roads, schools and police stations has been completed.

The review could potentially lead to faster and simplified land acquisition processes.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 12/7/24

An OECD report shows why Seymour is intent on shredding red tape

Our daily monitor of ministerial machinations and Beehive braying has been on the blink for the past week, alas. No, not a technical problem. Rather, a matter of ill-health.

Today we are catching up and herewith record the headlines posted on the government’s official website since we last buzzed on July 4.

Geoff Parker: Race-based land laws

A recent letter to a Northland newspaper protested that land acquired for Maori schools had not been returned to iwi when these facilities were closed. Similarly, there’s yet another Maori occupation of private land in the region, claiming it should be returned because it had once been a school property. Unfortunately, these claims lack both context and fact, which is something this article aims to rectify.