Following on from his 7th June editorial in the Fiji Times, Professor Spike Boydell has been interviewed by ABC correspondent Sean Dorney for this item on ABC News 24 ‘The World’, which first aired on 24 June 2014. It also includes comments from the Attorney General Aiyaz Sayad-Khaiyum and Prof Satish Chand. The link to the piece on the ABC website is available here.
“What people want is stability and land is central to that stability.” (Spike Boydell)
Professor Spike Boydell has been interviewed on ABC Radio Australia about the need for political parties in Fiji to explain their land policies ahead of the elections. A transcript of the interview is available here. The full piece on ABC Radio Australia – Pacific Beat – first aired on 24 June 2013 is available here.
With 100 days to go to the Fiji elections in September, none of the political parties have yet explained in their manifesto’s how they will deal with land (indeed, where are the manifesto’s?). In his feature editorial in the Fiji Times on Saturday 7th June, Spike Boydell highlights that being clear on land issues, having equitable leases that are fit for purpose at market rents, and respecting the paramountcy of iTaukei land – the vanua – is central to long term economic and political stability in Fiji.
Read the full article here.
CLS members Spike Boydell, Ulai Baya and John Sheehan are co-facilitating the Pacific Regional Symposium – Land and Property Rights in the South Pacific – Honiara 5-7 August 2014 (flyer & registration form) with Mike McDermott.
This Symposium is a joint initiative of the Commonwealth Association of Surveying and Land Economy (CASLE), the University of Technology, Sydney: Asia-Pacific Centre for Complex Real Property Rights (UTS: APCCRPR) and the International Academic Association for Planning Law and Property Rights (IAAPLPR). It is being hosted by the Solomon Islands Ministry of Lands, Housing and Surveys. It has been made possible through a small grant from the Commonwealth Foundation and the support of the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Surveys.
This is the second regional Land and Property Rights symposium co-facilitated by the UTS: APCCRPR and the IAAPLPR.
Please click on the highlighted text above, or the image on the left for more information.
The CLS site will be the digital repository for the symposium resources and video record of the event. If you are unable to attend, but would like to be notified when the resources are online, please complete the following contact form:
We agree with much of Joel Simo’s useful news article published in the Sydney Morning Herald last week (available here). However, whilst we know and have respect for Joel Simo, and accept that leases have been inappropriately drafted in Vanuatu, we remain of the view that appropriately drafted leases are part of the solution as well (see our guidance on leaseholds). This view is not shared by the Melanesian Indigenous Land Defence Alliance (MILDA) – but hope that they will come to realise that leases are the only way that surplus customary land can be accessed and made economically productive by third parties. What is important is ensuring that the leases are at commercial rents (as opposed to unimproved capital value), regularly reviewed, have an appropriate duration (for the customary landowners), and any improvements should be returned with the land to the customary landowners at lease expiry (or renewal) in good and tenantable repair. The problem, as we see it, is that historically in the Pacific leases have been drafted to benefit external investors and colonial interests rather than the customary landowners.
It is time to reverse this trend.
Customary Land Solutions 