Legislation which replaces the Foreshore and Seabed Act will exacerbate race relations and create a constitutional rip-off for Maori not affiliated with an iwi, former MP Winston Peters says.Mr Peters today appeared before Parliament's Maori Affairs commi
Legislation which replaces the Foreshore and Seabed Act will exacerbate race relations and create a constitutional rip-off for Maori not affiliated with an iwi, former MP Winston Peters says.
Mr Peters today appeared before Parliament's Maori Affairs committee, which is considering the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill.
The New Zealand First leader was a minister in the then Labour-led coalition government which implemented the Act in 2004 and today said its proposed replacement was constructed on a legal fiction which created rights that did not exist in 1840.
"In essence and in limitation, Maori did not assert ownership of the sea as they did for land but, rather, in common claimed rights of use to fisheries," he said.
"What this proposed legislation does, on behalf of one treaty signatory, is create a legal fiction when none existed before and, in doing so, creates a significant injustice for the other party to that treaty.
"To New Zealanders not affiliated to an iwi a serious constitutional rip-off is created.
"As bad, Maori within an iwi who, in historical Maori terms would have no rights within their maritime rohe (boundary), are hereby given an entitlement, which is tantamount to an abomination to Maori concepts of entitlement."
MP John Boscawen, a member of the committee whose ACT Party opposes the bill, asked Mr Peters if he agreed that there should be "no provision in this bill for the deals between claimants and the Attorney General behind closed doors".
Mr Peters did agree, and said that had been his party's position for the 2004 Act -- but pointed out ACT had "bitterly opposed" it at the time.
"You, sir, are running with the hares and hunting with the hounds and picking the eyes out of the issue," Mr Peters told Mr Boscawen.
"If you don't like what's there now, why don't you support a fair settlement, which is the 2004 Act."
Outside the committee, Mr Peters told reporters the bill would exacerbate race relations not only between Maori and non-Maori but also within Maori "as they struggle and fight over assets being given on a fictional legal basis by this Parliament and the National Government".
"The standard of proof has been so severely lowered by the very construction of the legal argument that they can mount. It's so simple now -- you just say 'I was here' and you're in business.
"I'm a very good example. My family has lived on the coast for a thousand years, right on the water's edge. What proof do we need?"
Maori already excluded people from beaches in some areas and Mr Peters warned that would worsen under the bill.
But Prime Minister John Key dismissed his warnings, telling reporters the legislation stated people were guaranteed free access to the foreshore and seabed.
Attorney-General Chris Finlayson said Mr Peters' appearance at the committee was "good old Winston, hadn't read anything, talking in slogans, shallow as a bird bath".
