The Aotea Maori Land Court staff in Wanganui with Minister of Courts Chester Borrows. Standing, Blair Anderson (left), Conwaye Fleming, Pirihira Cribb, Carolyn Moke, Andrea Joseph, Bronwyn Hika, Joy Kirk, Danielle Hika, Kim Sloan, Tania Teki, Daniel O'Connell, Natalie Hodge, Erina Winterburn, Jason Harrison and Richard Bennet; seated, Isa Brownlie, Mr Borrows and Te Reo Hau. PHOTO/BEVAN CONLEY
The Aotea Maori Land Court staff in Wanganui with Minister of Courts Chester Borrows. Standing, Blair Anderson (left), Conwaye Fleming, Pirihira Cribb, Carolyn Moke, Andrea Joseph, Bronwyn Hika, Joy Kirk, Danielle Hika, Kim Sloan, Tania Teki, Daniel O'Connell, Natalie Hodge, Erina Winterburn, Jason Harrison and Richard Bennet; seated, Isa Brownlie, Mr Borrows and Te Reo Hau. PHOTO/BEVAN CONLEY
The Aotea Maori Land Court in Wanganui is one of the best performing offices around the country.
Yesterday the staff welcomed Minister for Courts Chester Borrows to look at their pilot programmes that started in May and finish in December.
One is the reduced application processing times, which have exceededthe 10 per cent goal since April 30, and for the same period the staff had processed succession and trust applications by 19 and 14 per cent respectively.
Maori Land Court (MLC) district manager Blair Anderson said yesterday the Aotea office was also exploring opportunities to share resources across districts.
That pilot is under way for a centralised model to manage post-court land registration for the Takitimu (Hastings) and Tairawhiti (Gisborne) districts.
Once assessed, the potential is for the roll-out to all districts in July next year.
Mr Anderson explained that there were four advisory staff who were given tablets and mobile eftpos machines to trial in the field.
The staff were able to access land online, fill in applications on tablets, and receive documents and payments, which eliminated the need for clients to have to visit the office, or send applications or payments to the office by post.
The Ministry of Justice is increasing its use of technology, which it says provides a more convenient and faster service to customers across the courts.
People can look up Maori land details (including ownership, maps and trusts), or file an application online.
Another success for the Aotea staff is that they have been leaders and prime contributors to the advancement of the MLC database since the current programme was introduced in 1999.
