The bill to repeal the i-taukei Land Trust Act of 1940 known as Bill 17 has been passed in parliament moments ago.

Attorney General Siromi Turaga while tabling the bill in parliament says the bill seeks to amend the I-Taukei Land Trust Act 1940 which refers to the act to remove the amendments brought about by the I-Taukei Land Trust Budget Amendment Act 2021 which now commonly refer at the Act 22 of 2021.

Turaga says the act provides for the administration of i-Taukei Land when in section 4 of the act, the control of all i-Taukei land vest on the i-Taukei Land Trust Board commonly known as i-TLTB and all such land be administered by ITLTB in the benefit of the i-Taukei Landowners or the i-Taukei people.

“The effect of this provision is legal ownership remains with the Land owning units or LOU but control of i-Taukei land is transferred to and vested in TLTB. What is means the legal owner of i-Taukei land is the TLTB. For anyone to lease land we have to enter the door and that door is TLTB.”

Turaga says in section 12 of the act was amended by Act 22 of 021 to remove the requirement of obtaining consent from ITLTB for any mortgage, charge, pledge, and caveat or for any such lease to be dealt with by any court of law or under the process of any court of law.

Attorney General Siromi Turaga. 

Act 22 of 2021 also amends section 12 of the act to provide consent of iTLTB can only be refused whether there is a breach of any lease condition or where such application to deal with the land is not in accordance with any law.

During the debate, the opposition decided not to participate in the deliberations on the amendment bill.

“Mr. Speaker, Sir, I have raised our point of order, and I just want to clarify once again our position for the record of parliament because we believe according to Standing Order 61 we need to be on the right footing. That is why we, the opposition, are not participating in the deliberations for the record of parliament.”

The bill was passed following the decision by the members of the opposition not to vote.