Time to settle Foreshore & Seabed issue: Copeland

Former MP Gordon Copeland, believes that it is time to seek an enduring settlement on the foreshore & seabed issue.

“Driven by the fear of a pakeha backlash & distrustful of the Courts, the previous Government choose the path of confrontation & polarisation rather than negotiation & reconciliation”, said Mr Copeland. “They even labelled the more than 15,000 Maori & others who marched on Parliament as “wreckers & haters”!

“All of that was completely unnecessary. Maori are not seeking to exclude other New Zealanders from access to the beach but rather to uphold the tradition of kaitiakitanga or guardianship over the foreshore & seabed. This is not very different from the British legal tradition which views the foreshore & seabed as part of “the commons” i.e. the common property of the people.”

“I got so far as discussing this, at the time, with the Prime Minister & the Government came very close to agreeing to everyone owning the foreshore & seabed as part of the “public domain”. However that concept was quickly jettisoned when the Government turned, at the 11th hour, to Winston Peters & NZ First to get the numbers they needed to ram through the legislation. Peters was adamant that his support would not be forthcoming unless “public domain’ was dumped.”

“Sadly that is what happened & the resulting legislation, which vested the foreshore & seabed in the Crown, was about as bad as you could get!”

“Consider the matter for a moment from a Maori point of view. The Treaty of Waitangi is between the Maori tribes of New Zealand & the British Crown. Therefore the vesting of the foreshore & seabed in the Crown can only be viewed as a defeat for Maori & an insult to their mana.”

“I’m pleased that the matter, due to the persistence of the Maori Party, is now to be re-opened. This time round let’s get it right! After all it is really a pretty simple matter to vest the foreshore & seabed, by way of a special perpetual title, in all the people of New Zealand as guardians/caretakers for this & all future generations. We can, with a little forethought, build on the convergence between “kiatiakitanga” & “the commons” thus both fulfilling the Treaty of Waitangi and preserving for all time open & free access to the beach & the ocean.”

NB. This press release addresses only the question of the ownership of the foreshore & seabed, in the context of a national settlement, following the recommended repeal of the 2004 Act. Individual settlements based on customary rights (such as that with Ngati Porou), which are currently being progressed, should continue to completion.

ENDS

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