Crown reverses decision on contentious slice of Kāpiti Coast Airport sale

Kāpiti Coast Airport. Photo / David Haxton

The sale of a slice of land at Kāpiti Coast Airport many years ago was a breach of the Treaty of Waitangi, the Crown has conceded.

The Crown, using the power of the Public Works Act, took the land from various owners, in 1939 for an airport during World War II.

But there was a stipulation in the Public Works Act that any land surplus to airport requirements would be offered back to the original owners of the land.

In 1995 the Crown sold the airport land to a private company and by 1999 the land, in what is now Avion Tce, was sold and residential homes built.

The Crown's position, at the time, was "that the sale of the land was determined, by the airport company, to be exempt from section 40 of the Public Works Act offer back requirement because it 'would be impractical, unreasonable, or unfair' to offer the land back to the former owners or their successors", said a finding by the Waitangi Tribunal.

"The Crown took appropriate steps to ensure, to the extent it could, that the airport company was complying, or had complied, with its s40 obligations," it said in relation to the Avion Tce sale.

But a few years ago the Crown had reconsidered its position on the interpretation of the Public Works Act and considered the chief executive of Land Information New Zealand was responsible for complying with the offer-back provisions of the act and "making any decisions under those in relation to any land held for a public work by an airport company".

And the Crown also concluded there had been a Treaty breach in regards to the Avion Tce sale.

"After selling its interests in the airport company, the Crown took the view that responsibility for considering offer back sat with the company and the Crown failed to take appropriate action to ensure the protective mechanisms in section 40 of the Public Works Act, which protect the former owner's interests, were fulfilled.

"The acts and omissions of the Crown regarding the application of the offer back provisions in the Public Works Act to the land in Avion Tce cumulatively mean that the interests of the former Ngāti Puketapu owners were not properly considered or protected when the airport company sold the land in 1999 on the basis that it was surplus to requirements.

"This was a breach of te Tiriti o Waitangi / The Treaty of Waitangi and its principles."