Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand
Media Release – For Immediate Release

19 May 2009

“Longer conversation” required over Foreshore and Seabed

The Foreshore and Seabed Act of 2004 was the greatest breach of the Treaty of Waitangi in modern times, says Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand.

The Catholic agency for justice, peace and development says the Act should be repealed, in its submission to the Ministerial Review Panel on the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004.

In justice, says Caritas, the claimants in the Ngāti Apa court case that sparked the legislation have good grounds to ask for a return to the status quo before the government intervened to restrict access to courts.

However, Caritas equally acknowledges that public discourse has generally moved beyond that point. In 2004 there were indications that Māori Iwi and Hapū were willing to participate in a “longer conversation”, as proposed by the Waitangi Tribunal, to reach an accommodation that recognised property rights while preserving public access.

“If Māori are still willing to participate in dialogue and negotiation then we believe that is the best way forward,” says Caritas director Michael Smith. However, the generosity of Māori in being willing to discuss such alternatives in 2004 was not met with an equal generosity on the part of the Crown.”

Caritas says a return to that “longer conversation” of the Waitangi Tribunal should not be imposed on Māori without their consent. “The process by which a unilateral solution was imposed by the majority on the indigenous minority must not be repeated in 2009,” says Mr Smith.

In 2004, Caritas opposed the legislation, and produced a booklet of 37 submissions by Catholic organisations and individuals on the legislation. Reasons for the opposition included the removal of access to the courts and the discriminatory nature of the legislation, which removed property rights from Māori while not affecting non-Māori with title to coastal property in the foreshore.

Caritas and other Catholic submitters also found the legislation out of step with Catholic social teaching on the rights of indigenous people.

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is a member of Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of 162 Catholic aid, development and social justice agencies active in over 200 countries and territories.

ENDS

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