New foreshore and seabed legislation is likely to be ready for introduction to Parliament by the second week of next month, Prime Minister John Key says.Under the legislation, which repeals and replaces the 2004 Foreshore and Seabed Act, the foreshore and
New foreshore and seabed legislation is likely to be ready for introduction to Parliament by the second week of next month, Prime Minister John Key says.
Under the legislation, which repeals and replaces the 2004 Foreshore and Seabed Act, the foreshore and seabed will be removed from Crown ownership and will become a domain with public access guaranteed and no one having the right to sell any of it.
Iwi will be able to seek customary rights and customary title through negotiation with the Government or through the High Court, but will have to prove exclusive use and occupation since 1840.
Previous legislation left it in Crown ownership and stopped Maori from testing in court whether it had some form of title to coastal areas.
The proposed change has sparked a campaign from the Coastal Coalition, which last week erected billboards in the form of modified "Iwi-Kiwi" ones used by National in 2005.
The Coastal Coalition said Iwi-Kiwi billboards had wrongly accused the previous Labour government of favouring iwi, and now National appeared to be doing just that.
Mr Key said today the new billboards, one of which shows him in a Maori cloak along with words suggesting Maori will have rights relating to coastal areas at the expense of other Kiwis, were factually wrong and unimaginative.
"If you can leave it up to the imagination of the individual it might work, but when it's factually wrong - and we can prove it's factually wrong - why should anyone take any notice of it?"
