The Green Party is vowing to make sure all stolen land is returned to tangata whenua by introducing legislation including removing a historical claims deadline for breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and establishing a process for private land.

The Hoki Whenua Mai policy builds on another launched under the same name on Waitangi Day last year but adds further provisions around reforming the Public Works Act, which allows for taking of Māori land and removing the 2008 claims deadline.

“The Aotearoa we know today has been built off of Māori land, much of which was wrongly taken through breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi over the last 183 years,” said Marama Davidson, Green Party co-leader.

“As Aotearoa approaches the 185-year anniversary of the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and the 50-year anniversary of the Treaty of Waitangi Act, the time is now to reflect on next steps to ensure the promise of Te Tiriti is honoured and wrongs are put right.”

Davidson said their policy would recognise tino rangatiratanga and repair the harms of the past.

“We will do this by organising a commission of inquiry into land dispossession to investigate land taken through breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

“We will remove the 2008 deadline to lodge new Treaty claims and reinstate the ability for the Waitangi Tribunal to make recommendations in relation to privately owned land, as that land comes on the property market.”

The Hoki Whenua Mai plan will amend the Public Works Act to stop whenua Māori being taken in future and provide a path for the return of land previously taken, Davidson said. This was something the party had campaigned on ahead of the 2020 election.

The plan would also end perpetual leases, returning full control of the whenua back to Māori landowners.

Other aspects of the policy include an investigation into alienated Māori land, a process for returning it and revisiting all Treaty settlements to ensure they are just and enduring.

The settlement process has seen close to $3 billion provided in redress across close to 100 settlements for breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi, or slightly more than the annual budget for the Department of Corrections.

Those settlements were often designed to compensate for loss of land, including where it was taken by force - raupatu - and excluded any discussions around land that had changed into private hands.

Critics have argued this experience had denied many iwi and hapū the right to have land taken from them returned, which was especially problematic now with rising property prices pushing any land purchases further out of reach.

The party also proposes an investigation into the dispossession of whenua across the country, including that seized because of public works and rating arrears, wrongfully alienated through the Native Land courts and through improper transactions.

A Commission of Inquiry would look into dispossession and redress and revisit Treaty settlements to ensure they were just and enduring - something the party campaigned on ahead of the 2020 election.

Mana whenua would be given right of first refusal over any land deemed to have been wrongfully alienated, and the Waitangi Tribunal powers restored to make recommendations, including private land.

As outlined in the policy document from last year, a fund for the process would be established along with a registry to give current landowners the option of signing up, regardless of land status.

Green Party Māori Development spokesperson Teanau Tuiono said indigenous control over land would also help boost biodiversity.

“Returning land to tangata whenua is the right thing to do to address the ongoing injustices that Māori experience.

“Aotearoa can be a place where active kaitiakitanga led by tangata whenua guides our relationship with te taiao, ensuring our tūpuna whenua, awa, and maunga are cared for.”

The Green Party’s Hoki Whenua Mai policy:

• Establishing a Commission of Inquiry into dispossession and redress will provide evidence of the full extent of dispossession of land due to Treaty breaches.
• We will repeal the claims deadline and remove the ban on historical claims to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and continue the work of the Department of Conversation on future governance within a Te Tiriti o Waitangi framework.
• We will enable recommendations for private land that was wrongfully taken from Māori as that land comes on to the property market.
• We will reform the Public Works Act to prevent future taking of Māori land.
• Ending perpetual leases to give full control back to Māori land owners.
• Costings for Commission of Inquiry and claimant support.