Maori Party MP confirms public’s foreshore and seabed to be privatised to iwi

Dr Hugh Barr, spokesman for the Coastal Coalition - an umbrella group set up to keep the foreshore and seabed in Crown ownership - is alarmed at the claims made by Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell. He claims the Coalition’s flyers being distributed in Tauranga “tell lies and cloud the truth” (the flier is attached).

"We have been very careful to ensure the points raised in our flier are factual. The MP's claims do not hold water", Dr Barr said.

"The government is planning to give Maori ownership rights to one of New Zealand's most valuable public assets - the foreshore and Territorial Seabed out to the 12 nautical miles (including coastal estuaries, the airspace above and much of the mineral wealth below). This resource has always been owned by the Crown on behalf of all New Zealanders.

Most New Zealanders have no idea this giveaway, one of the largest public asset transfers in New Zealand's history, is about to take place under their noses before Christmas, without any proper consultation with anyone except Maori. It's no wonder Maori Party and National MPs
want to discredit anyone who raises concerns about their audacious give-away.

"Mr Flavell agrees with us that under the government's plan, Maori tribes will take control of much of the foreshore and seabed, including exclusive rights to minerals, aquaculture, and development. These are very strong property rights, at present owned by the Crown on behalf of us all.

Already many tribal activists believe they own the country and openly flout the laws of the land. The Maori Party cannot guarantee that Maoris will take any notice of any requirements for public access to the foreshore and seabed once they own it.

" Maori have never owned the foreshore and seabed. If they had believed they owned it, every Treaty of Waitangi claim since 1985 would have included the foreshore and seabed. But none did. In 2003 the Court of Appeal suggested Maori should have the right to go to Court to test whether they had ownership rights to the Marlborough Sounds. However the Court believed few - if any - would succeed as the requirements were so stringent. Claimants had to own land next to the area being claimed and prove continuous and uninterrupted usage since 1840.

"Mr Flavell has now confirmed that those stringent requirements will be dropped: Maori tribes will no longer have to front up to a court of law to prove their ownership claims in an open and transparent process, but will instead be able to do secret backroom deals with friendly Ministers! There are no safeguards for the public in that process. In fact the public are eliminated from the process.

"On top of this, the dropping of the need for contiguous land will open the floodgates for claims. This is especially the case, as control of the iron-sand industry are at stake, an industry valued at up to $1 trillion ($1,000,000,000,000) by the Government’s Crown Minerals, and one of New Zealand’s major strategic assets. It will be just like the old gold-rush days except only Maori claimants will be allowed.

"Mr Flavell's claims tangata whenua should be able to do whatever they like with the foreshore and seabed. This demonstrates the greedy and selfish attitude by Iwi that is driving this racial claim for the priceless pubic resource of the foreshore and seabed. Instead it should be held in Crown ownership for the good of all New Zealand citizens", Dr Barr said.

ENDS

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