Request for an investigation into Hutt City Council, Land Information NZ and the Ministry of Justice

To the Office of the Auditor General

Tena koe,

This is in reply to the previous reply from the Office of the Auditor General. In addition to the request for a reconsideration of the decision of the OAG to not investigate HCC, I wish to request a wider investigation of other agencies.  

Please note that in the following links is included a link to correspondence with the Surveyor General and Registrar General of Land. All my concerns about the failure to adhere to survey and title requirements have been raised with the relevant authorities previously. On this basis, I ask that the request for an investigation is undertaken concurrently with my sending them a copy of this complaint.

I have reviewed the recent reply from your office and wish to bring the following points to your attention:

• The Office of the Auditor General was specifically identified in the article on the purchase along with the Serious Fraud Office.

His purchase is referred to in complaints to the Office of the Auditor General and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), and in numerous emails and documents obtained from the Hutt City Council. Neither office considered the complaints warranted further investigation.

• On the issue of whether the information available to Campbell Barry was publicly available, the Wainuiomata North Development documents were not supplied when I asked for them. I was evidently one of several members of the public who requested the information. The refusal to supply the information was in blatant disregard to the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987. I first requested the information specifically in July 2019 and the principle document was only supplied in December 2019. Currently, I still have information requests that have not been supplied and these are the subject of complaints to the Ombudsman. I believe that this matter is an appropriate matter for investigation of the OAG as it appears that the OAG may have made a decision based on false information supplied by HCC.
• In response to two articles published in Stuff, the Council claimed that the development plans were subsumed by the Wellington Regional Growth Framework. However, this assertion is untrue. The WRGF has responded to information requests stating that it takes an overview or coordinating role and the substantial planning remains with the respective local government authorities.  I believe that this matter is also an appropriate matter for investigation of the OAG as it appears that the OAG may have made a decision based on false information supplied by HCC.
• The Hutt City Council appears to have utilised shortcomings in the policing of surveys and title requirements by Land Information New Zealand. This has resulted in the Hutt City Council obtaining freehold fee-simple title to areas of land without incurring the cost of full and proper cadastral survey. In my opinion, this is a serious matter and within the scope of the Office of the Auditor General as it affects a key element of the auditing process (in particular the accounting for assets).  This is a serious matter and one that is the proper subject of an investigation by your office. I have seen widespread evidence with the failure to ensure adherence to survey and land title requirements in my professional capacity in investigating Maori land titles. If the problems are widespread throughout the land title system this would be a matter of national importance.  

The wider issue of non-compliance with requirements for survey and titles are complicated matters. Providing all the details of the survey and title issues that I believe are relevant to the HCC is a difficult matter. The Land Transfer Act register is no longer publicly available, being accessible only on the payment of fees. However, in my opinion, these issues are an appropriate subject for investigation by the OAG.  

In my previous employment with the Ministry of Justice, I completed detailed studies of the registration and survey of Maori land post 2000. On the basis of this work I wish to ask for an investigation of the Ministry of Justice and Land Information New Zealand. Although the issues I uncovered in the registration and survey of Maori land might be regarded as historical (being largely relating to the period 2004-2010), the effects of the non-compliance remain evident in the current land titles. I am raising this request for an investigation in this communication because the issues about non-compliance with survey and title requirements are far wider than the specific concerns with the actions of the Hutt City Council. I do however, want to again raise these issues in relation to the Hutt City Council. In doing this, I wish to emphasise that the issue is one of the Hutt City Council increasing the value of its assets by use of means not available to the general public. In particular, large private landowners in the Hutt cannot avail themselves of the same methods to remove 'limited as to parcels' status for their freehold properties. Private landowners would face considerable costs in defining their lands to a level where they might get the limitations of their land titles removed. These are matters that would appear to be proper matters for investigation by your office.

I have expertise in the subject of the investigation of historical Maori land issues. I have given expert evidence on the subject of Maori land titles on numerous occasions. It is on the basis of this expertise that I wish to make my complaint about the failure of Land Information New Zealand to properly require adherence to the Land Transfer Act 1952 (since superseded by the Land Transfer Act 2017) and the Cadastral Survey Act 2002. In my opinion, the issues that I have seen in the issue to Hutt City Council of freehold fee-simple titles without the required survey standards or proper investigation of prior live title interests is part of a far wider problem evident with Land Information New Zealand.  

Links to documents to support a request for an investigation into Land Information NZ, The Ministry of Justice and Hutt City Council

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1acPn0id98NNLjzldOe8B5F3rVZjDA9cl/view?usp=sharing

A report on lands within the Waimate North area, Bay of Islands. Note in particular Chapter Five.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RHxhceZ4Xf7kgVTxvnWRZfEntMmVGJWa/view?usp=sharing

An appendix to the report on Waimate North lands. Note in particular Parts Two, Three and Four.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Uw-wowk9yKYtHKn7GhWBK5Yey9LnF_uY?usp=sharing

Annotated title and survey documents relating to Waimate North.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1z__10WMmyXSUNLzZ_MakDemwXlwOnnE4?usp=sharing

Copies of grants and deeds documents for Waimate North. An examination of these documents, together with titles issued under the Maori Freehold Land Registration Project shows non-compliance with the requirement to refer to prior live title records upon registration under the Land Transfer Act 1952.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1slplGv8QisJFgLPZe8cLBQoz7MIN-fIV/view?usp=sharing

A report on lands in the Taihape area. Note in particular the discussion of Owhaoko D7B

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1od4Y1Dtzxz39t9X9v-KU62AdPORiGrPi?usp=sharing

Land title documents for Owhaoko area, Taihape.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xQ2L6pPw1D1Fwhelq4zOqo8zWdE6n_5V?usp=sharing

Communications with the Registrar General of Land and the Surveyor General.  

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Db3TvS8weW_AlHiqvJgISXArVrdwnzkD?usp=sharing

OIA request Te Puni Kokiri on the subject of the registration of Maori land.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yWX_14nzRM9psCRLzglbAlcqxcGkbKKg?usp=sharing

Documents relating to the disposal of Mohaka wetland to a property developer. Note in particular, the interpretation that the Hutt City Council was a private landowner for the purpose of the District Plan.  

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1j2Z9vqQeiq0mJnhSuJkj0kH65Sd4SD1E?usp=sharing

Documents relating to the survey or title for Hutt City Council lands. Note in particular, annotations on survey plans and the issue of full freehold titles for areas known to be subject to inadequate survey.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1mAlnbSlavqWXgDs9ygqzonvaTlMfRpZs?usp=sharing

Documents relating to the historical surveys and titles for the Plimmerton Farm area, currently subject to a fast-track approval process. Note in particular the known survey issues prior to the issue of the current title.  

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qwES8q_imOivPS9kLzbH19GK09VOR2Zh?usp=sharing

A folder containing the two identified versions of LINZS10000. Compare these with the Cadastral Survey Act 2002. Note in particular the references to s.47(5).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QpDQkbTVRXQIRwVI6rm9IpVY3a42r6rn/view?usp=sharing

This document shows the expenditure on LINZS10000 'surveys' during part of the period that the Maori Freehold Land Registration Project was underway. This is a significant expenditure of public money by the Ministry of Justice for 'surveys' clearly and obviously non-compliant with the Cadastral Survey Act 2002.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vQ5UYmQajSPPJqqk4nfNhxLcMrloyHWK/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t6iyS9WzqZqQtFjBGzF7PuldbNBfD-2u/view?usp=sharing

These documents suggest widespread non-compliance with survey requirements. Note in particular the gap between survey date and approval date. It seems highly unlikely that the holders of the respective titles were informed of the behind the scenes identification of problems and the rectification of the same. I can confirm that I have checked multiple Maori land titles and found that LINZ did not routinely notify the Maori Land Court of the problems found in the surveys of Maori Freehold Land. This is a serious concern as ML surveys were approved by Maori Land Court Judges.  

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k3yd--S0sWlt8SmlN--uTFn3h-GnmZzR/view?usp=sharing

The Ministry of Justice ignored a submission that the records of the Maori Freehold Land Registration Project should be kept.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1tBDsGU3lf6LrnnW8oczh2xfpO6F3mXbT?usp=sharing

Documents relating to urban development plans in the Hutt and Porirua area.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1V4vCptDp9WLj9fgDpry6fllefiFWTRsU?usp=sharing

Open letters of concern, legislation and compliance issues.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12aDL6Mr9OmeiN40ROipYjb3yOd6MVXTe?usp=sharing

Maps showing a type of defect in Maori land records.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Dguf7tw9FtPV2bQXmoB2E-085ANXkXY2/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q_0SXkFis_i_1hHOXTdzp7bQCVZxO82X/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wgMAasEHV2ST9FWt8XLgb_NGqZdUlMNl/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XUL0EyDwFmR1O0d7idPGzCRW5oOKVdGz/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13upilwaW10BpyclUwLA7ltQgW_BmQ96L/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hxo-qD9gmZpHyWeSdvaDWUaLM3jleZT7/view?usp=sharing

Maori Land Court minutes demonstrating serious concerns with the quality of the 'surveys' of land under the Maori Freehold Land Registration Project.

Articles and press releases on Campbell Barry land purchase

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300093140/the-battle-for-a-slice-of-hutt-paradise

https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/300093672/controversy-over-politicians-house-purchase

https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/300105243/hutt-city-council--a-correction-and-clarification

https://www.huttcity.govt.nz/Your-Council/News-and-notices/media-releases/wainuiomata-north-statement-of-clarification/

Please note that I am continuing to attempt to raise the above issues with Maori landowners and members of the legal and survey professions. I will send a copy of this request for an investigation to representatives of these interests.

Naku noa, na,

Craig Innes