‘Removing roadblocks’: Government seeks to simplify acquisition of private land

Minister for Land Information Chris Penk. Photo / Warren Buckland
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.
The last significant amendment to the Public Works Act was more than 30 years ago and in July, an expert panel was appointed to review it, particularly its land acquisition and compensation functions.
The panel identified instances where the act lacked “clarity and commonsense.”
The panel has now delivered their recommendations to the minister leading the changes, Chris Penk, who is expected to reveal more specific details about the policy changes later this year.
Penk says the Public Works Act was “fundamental” but no longer fit for purpose and needed to be changed to “improve its fairness and efficiency”.
“If we can make it simpler to acquire land for critical projects, then we reduce the likelihood of budget blow-outs and delays and can get on with growing our economy and delivering the public services Kiwis deserve.
“For example, all infrastructure projects that use the act must meet a high threshold of being of national and regional significance. While a high threshold is important for protecting private property rights, there are many worthy and necessary projects that are vital for a particular region or community but may not be nationally significant.
“Having not been substantially amended since 1988, the act is no longer fit-for-purpose, and it is time to make changes to improve its fairness and efficiency.”
Penk said he was keen to recommend changes to speed up the process when the landowner has consented to selling their land.
“It’s probably not understood well by many people that if a landowner agrees to sell their land, you still have to go through Land Information New Zealand.
“If we can enable transactions to go through more quickly, then that let’s people get on with their lives in a situation where the Crown is ultimately going to acquire their land … they can do it more quickly and make decisions elsewhere in terms of replacement land that they would need to live or work.”
Under the act, land can be acquired compulsorily following compensation.
Penk said the Public Works Act had historically been used as a means of the Crown effectively confiscating land from Māori.
“We don’t think there is much that would specifically speak to the situation of Māori land (with this review) as opposed to general land, and that is to say, it is very much a last resort proposition, that freehold Māori land would be acquired for this purpose partly because we are sensitive of that unfortunate and unfair history.”
Historian Dr Vincent O’Malley has previously told the Herald under the 1864 Public Works Act, for example, Māori lands were commonly targeted as that was seen as the “path of least resistance”.
“One of my standing jokes is one of the reasons New Zealand roads are so windy is they go from one piece of Māori land to the next, avoiding all the European lands nearby,” O’Malley said.
Meanwhile, Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon currently has a member’s bill before Parliament which she says would address “a flaw” in the Public Works Act where Māori freehold and customary land can be acquired without the consent of affected Māori communities.
“Not one more acre of whenua Māori should be taken by the Crown, and I am calling on all political parties to support my bill to protect Maori land from confiscation under the Public Works Act.
“For many Māori, the confiscation of land is not just a memory of the Land Wars and their legacy, but something that is still confronting them in the present,” Lyndon said in May when her bill was drawn from the ballot.
“The Public Works Act was one of the key mechanisms which facilitated the alienation of Māori land.”
Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.