Labour Leader Chris Hipkins is "not opposed" to a proposed shake-up of the Public Works Act.
The act allows government agencies to force people and businesses to sell their land so big projects can be completed.
Yesterday, 1News revealed Land Information Minister Chris Penk wanted the legislation to undergo an overhaul so infrastructure projects could be fast-tracked.
Under current legislation, the acquisition of land by the Crown can be tied up – often caught in lengthy court cases.
"We want to know ways that we can basically speed up the process, which will give much more certainty to landowners and, of course, get infrastructure built much more quickly," he said.
The Government wants to fast track big projects. (Source: 1News)
Hipkins told Breakfast this morning: “We should certainly look at” whatever proposal the Government comes up with.
"I mean, my own personal view here is that we probably haven’t used the Public Works Act as we could to get some of these big infrastructure projects up and running."
Asked why Labour hadn’t looked at the act while in government, Hipkins said: "We had a huge amount of legislative change going through over the last six years.
"This wasn’t something that we looked at, but I’m certainly not opposed to looking at it now."
He said previous governments were often "late to the party" when addressing population growth and subsequent infrastructure upgrades.
Hipkins floated the idea of land banking so the country could be prepared for the need for new investments.
"If we were saying, 'let’s buy this land now and let’s sit on it for the next 10 years while this development unfolds, and then when the time is right, we’ll build a new school on it', I think we’d probably get better value for money.
"But it would involve the Crown, the government, actually planning much further ahead for these key infrastructure projects than we do now."
The Labour leader said there always needed to be a balance between the need for new infrastructure and landowners’ rights, but sometimes the land was needed – despite the protestations from those losing it.
"There have been infrastructure projects where people have been very resistant. But actually, in hindsight, nobody is actually complaining about them."
He used the Kāpiti Expressway as an example, which was controversial at first.
"The benefits to the whole region of that new roading have been enormous," he said.
"I think we do need to be careful, but from time to time, I think we do need to use the Public Works Act to make sure that we can get big infrastructure projects moving."
As for Māori land, Green MP Huhana Lyndon already had a bill before Parliament to prevent it from being acquired compulsorily.
Hipkins said the coalition Government would need to "tread carefully" around this, "and we’ll need to look closely to scrutinise any potential changes they might want to make".
Penk has said his proposal was not aimed at Māori land: "This is not intended and will not result in a reduction of the Crown's obligations in terms of Treaty of Waitangi settlements."
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