Minister of Land Information Chris Penk. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The Government is reviewing the Public Works Act in a bid to speed up its ability to acquire privately owned land.
The act would allow central or local government to buy property needed for public infrastructure and services.
Minister of Land Information Chris Penk told Morning Report the review wasn't about taking away private property rights any more than was already done.
Rather it was about speeding up the process, he said.
"(Land owners) are ultimately being forced off their land, to use that expression, at the moment. It just takes an extraordinarily long period of time to do that.
"All the resource and money and crown dollars get sucked up in litigation and process that would be better spent actually compensating these land owners."
Penk said he didn't want to pre-empt the outcome of the review, but said he didn't believe the right for a judicial review of a decision would be removed.
It was important for landowners to have recourse through the courts if they believed a decision was unreasonable, he said.
"(Land owners) are often philosophical about the need, but they say for goodness sake get on with it."
Penk said the review was not about reducing the crown's obligations regarding claims under the Treaty of Waitangi.
"In terms of māori land more generally, there are obviously pretty thorny questions in relation to some of that land that's been collective held over many years so that's outside the review in the sense that we're not thinking specifically about how to rewrite that whole system."
The terms of the review were still being finalised, Penk said. The "short sharp" review was expected to take 8 weeks.
"We think it will make it much more quick and affordable to get that major infrastructure built," Penk said.
