Solution must be found to unpaid rates says Samuels

 

Te Tai Tokerau Maori Advisory Committee chair, Dover Samuels, is advocating an ambitious plan to try to resolve the issue of unpaid rates on Maori land, a controversial and increasingly costly problem that has plagued successive Northland councils for years.

In the Northland Regional Council's case it was owed more than $4 million of unpaid rates and penalties from ratepayers in just the Far North District alone as of June 30 this year, of which Councillor Samuels says roughly two-thirds related to Maori land.

Politics, costs and the practicalities of trying to collect rates from often multiple owners has meant the 'debts' effectively languished on council books incurring GST and other costs.

Councillor Samuels says he has become increasingly frustrated at the way those who are not paying will use culture – and the sometimes diverse ownership arrangements surrounding Maori land – as an excuse for non-payment.

"Those ratepayers who do pay their rates – and let's be very clear there are also a great number of Maori who fall into that category, including me – are effectively subsidising those who aren't."

He says the very large sums of money going uncollected also represent a great deal of 'lost opportunity' that could be for the benefit of all Northlanders and he is both personally and professionally keen to try to find a workable solution.

The regional council is proposing to possibly utilise its relatively new Te Tai Tokerau Maori Advisory Committee to scope the problem and investigate possible solutions, and explore a collaboration with its three district council counterparts.

One possibility included a single-rating platform that could eventually see one council collect and process rates on behalf of all four Northland councils (or a range of other options).

Currently, all three councils collected their rates separately, with each also collecting rates on behalf of the regional council in their area.

Councillor Samuels had raised his concerns about the challenges surrounding rates on Maori land at a recent local government meeting in Wellington and Northland was by no means alone in grappling with the issue.