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Years of claims to follow new foreshore bill - Peters

Replacement foreshore and seabed legislation will create decades of Treaty claims and allow only some Maori to have their say, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says.As part of the National Government's support agreement with the Maori Party it intr

NZPA
Thu, 23 Sep 2010

Replacement foreshore and seabed legislation will create decades of Treaty claims and allow only some Maori to have their say, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says.

As part of the National Government's support agreement with the Maori Party it introduced the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill, which repeals the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004.

The new bill had its first reading last week.

The replacement legislation removes the foreshore and seabed from Crown ownership and gives iwi the right to seek customary title to parts of it through the High Court or negotiations with the Government.

In notes for a speech to Grey Power in Palmerston North this afternoon Mr Peters said the original foreshore legislation was fair and gave ownership to the Crown on behalf of all New Zealanders, while providing for the special historical relationship between Maori and the coastal area.

Under the new bill there was no guaranteed access to the foreshore and only some Maori would have their say, he said.

"Under this new legislation there will be decades of Treaty claims over customary titles."

Mr Peters said customary title meant ownership.

"National is privatising thousands of kilometres of coastline and handing the ownership to groups claiming to represent coastal Maori.

"The voices of ordinary New Zealanders have been silenced while their birthright has been taken away," he said.

Meanwhile, Maori Party MP Hone Harawira, who voted against the legislation despite his party supporting it, said the discrimination of the original legislation remained in the new bill.

The Maori Party supported the bill because it repealed the foreshore legislation and restored Maori's right to go to court, he said in his weekly newspaper column.

"But I'm opposing it because the discrimination of the last bill remains -- if the most hated man in the world landed in Auckland today and bought a piece of our foreshore and seabed tomorrow, he'd have more rights than I would under this bill."

Mr Harawira said he also opposed the legislation because it required Maori to show exclusive use and occupation since 1840 and because customary rights would be decided by the Crown, not Maori.

Mr Peters said no notice should be taken of Mr Harawira's decision not to vote for the new bill.

"The Harawiras won't be happy until they get all of New Zealand back and put the last white person on a plane out of here."

NZPA
Thu, 23 Sep 2010
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Years of claims to follow new foreshore bill - Peters
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