Opposition defeats government's land Bills

[posted 7 Dec 2005, 1400]

The SDL government’s Land Bills were defeated in the House of Representatives by the Opposition last week when it failed to  gain the required two-thirds majority.

The Opposition voted against the Bill as a block. This is the second major setback for the government in as many days – the first was the defeat of the Bill to amend the Constitution.

However, Opposition Leader Mahendra Chaudhry assured government it was still open to negotiations on the land issue if the process was taken to the Talanoa session.

Speaking during debated on the land issue in Parliament, Chaudhry chastised the government for wanting to bulldoze through changes to an entrenched legislation without seeking the support of the Opposition.

He said land was a sensitive issue on which the consensus of all communities and political parties was necessary.

He supported this with recommendations from the Reeves Commission Report of 1996 which also made it clear that provisions of an entrenched legislation such as ALTA should not be changed without the agreement of communities and groups it seeks to protect.

Chaudhry said this was an issue that should be settled between leaders of all political parties in a calm and dispassionate manner behind closed doors. This was a process which might be time consuming but had to be based on trust and confidence.

He warned government members that threats would not get the legislation through. Neither was the floor of the House of Representatives the proper forum for negotiating the land issue. The Bill should not have been brought before the House until an agreement had been reached on its provisions.

The Opposition Leader said NLTA was not an entrenched legislation and did not provide security to tenant farmers as ALTA did. NLTA could be changed through regulations brought in by the Minister responsible without the changes coming through Parliament.

“If this Bill is passed, the matter will get out of the control of this august House and out of the control of the legislators. The Minister will have the freedom to make regulations as the government of the day decides and change tenancy conditions, and other aspects of the lease,” Chaudhry warned.

He brushed off the much vaunted 50-year lease issue as just a carrot being dangled before farmers, since the minimum being offered was just a 20-year lease.

He suggested that government re-open bipartisan negotiations using the independent Cyril Farrow report as the basis.