Rotoiti 15 trustee weighs in on Te Ture Whenua reform

Arapeta Tahana feels the changes to Te Ture Whenua reform will allow more flexibility for using Maori owned land. Photo/File

Changes to Te Ture Whenua will allow more flexibility for Maori landowners making decisions, says a trustee of a large block of Maori land.

Arapeta Tahana Jnr is a trustee on Rotoiti 15, a 8500ha block of Maori-owned land with 13,000 beneficiaries. He said it made up about 10 per cent of Maori land in Rotorua.

If each of the trustees owned the same amount of land, it would take 9750 owners to meet a 75 per cent participation threshold.

If each of the trustees owned varying sized shares they would need the equivalent of 6375ha of land to meet a 75 per cent participation threshold.

Mr Tahana said for context they only had contact details for 40 per cent of their owners.

"Sometimes when someone has passed away and no one has succeeded their shares we have no idea where the ownership lies," he said.

The low thresholds on certain decisions will allow Rotoiti 15 more flexibility over how it uses the land, Mr Tahana said.

"In our minds there was no need to go to court for a lot of those things," he said.

"This brings us into line with other land legislation."

Mr Tahana said it was important for people to remember this was an "evolving space".

"It will never be perfect, but we're moving in the right direction," he said.

"We all own it together, we all work it together, we all benefit together."