14 Oct 2005

Disappointment in Cooks at bill passage

5:16 pm on 14 October 2005

There's been some disappointment in the Cook Islands that the Unit Titles Bill has been passed in parliament without further debate.

The Unit Titles Bill is awaiting the approval of the Queen's Representative before the legislation becomes the Unit Titles Act 2005.

Two petitions against the bill will have to be verified before they can be certified.

Anna Rasmussen, who organised the Rarotonga petition, says people are shocked that the government has rushed the bill through when they feel there was not enough debate about issues of land ownership in the bill.

"I just don't understand the government really because they've got no laws in place. How big are the subdivisions going to be? Are they going to be able to sub-divide on the beachfront and all sorts of things. I'm just amazed that it's happened."

And already they're asking foreign investors to come and buy unit titles in Rarotonga.

Anna Rasmussen says one good thing to come out of the Bill is that it maintains the present building three-story height restriction as requested in the petition.