Vanuatu Review of National Land Legislation, Policy and ... - AusAID

equired for a “public purpose”, which the Act defined as “the utilisation of landsnecessary or expedient in the public interest and includes a purpose which underany other written law is deemed to be a public purpose”. There then follows asequence of steps, from initial notification and investigation to notice of intendedacquisition, any appeals, an inquiry into compensation, any further appeals,payment of compensation and taking of possession.The procedure under the Act has occasionally been invoked, to acquire bothcustomary land and on one occasion a lease, but agreement was reached oncompensation without the need to resort to compulsory acquisition. 14 Governmentsin the Pacific Islands are extremely reluctant to acquire customary land bycompulsory acquisition, in part as a reflection of the view that customary land is,essentially, unalienable. Nevertheless, the compulsory acquisition powers underthe Act remain available, and the Act is not confined to customary land.3.2.4. Land Reform (Amendment) Acts 1992 and 2000These amendments were an attempt to resolve the status of lands which, atindependence, had belonged to the British or French Governments, theCondominium or a municipality. The Constitution made no reference to such lands(which comprised the main urban areas of Port Vila and Luganville), and it mighttherefore be thought that they, too, reverted to custom ownership. But the LandReform Regulation, in its original form, vested all such land (called “state land”) inthe Government as public land (Sec. 9), and made provision for payment ofcompensation to the custom owners “for the use of the land and the loss of anyimprovements thereon”, as well as other special benefits (Sec. 11). 15 Theimplication was that the lands were only leased by the Government from the customowners, but by the 1992 amendment all the provisions relating to the payment ofcompensation and other benefits were repealed. The lands in question were simplyvested in the Government, without any qualification on their legal status or provisionfor compensation. The implication now was that the lands were owned by theGovernment.This remained the situation until 2000, when another attempt was made to deal withthe outstanding issues affecting such lands. Without referring to their legal status,the 2000 amendment introduced a minimal provision for compensation – basically,allowing the Government to determine the amount of compensation, taking accountof “the market value of the land and any other matters that it considers relevant”(Sec. 9B). A right of appeal lay to the Supreme Court against the amount ofcompensation determined by the Government. According to recent newspaperreports, a total of VT 280 million was paid to villages which claimed customownership of the Port Vila urban area, but claims still surface.14 Patricia Holmes provides further detail on the Act and the controversy it generated in herunpublished Master of Arts thesis “Land Tenure in Vanuatu: Custom, culture, tradition … anddevelopment?” (1996), at pp14-16.15 This compensation “package” implemented the Minister, Sethy Regenvanu’s, commitment inthe Land Policy Communique, mentioned above in the text.15