Already this debate has been utterly sickening, and I stand with the thousands of other New Zealanders who, over the next few days, will likewise be sickened by listening to Maori justify the taking of Maori land. So much has been said in the last 18 months about the Government's abject failure to manage the issue of the foreshore and seabed properly; from Helen Clark's ridiculous over-reaction after the Ngati Apa decision, to the arrogant disregard of Michael Cullen and Trevor Mallard for Maori analysis and experience during the consultation hui, and to the creation of this legislation, which extinguishes customary rights, confiscates land, and is nothing if not entirely deceptive.
This litany of failures has cost Labour one of its best members of Parliament and a significant chunk of its traditional Maori and Pakeha support, and it has set back Maori and Pakeha relationships by more than 30 years. What a sick achievement for this Government! At one point it looked as if the Government seriously wanted to give New Zealanders the opportunity to be heard on the issue through the select committee process, but even that turned into one of this Parliament's greatest disgraces. Labour and New Zealand First refused to give enough time for the select committee to consider the bill properly, and the committee could not hear the thousands of submitters who wanted to be heard. Nor could committee members properly consider the major issues that arose from those submissions; nor in the end did they have even enough time to discuss and recommend any changes to the bill. Of course, the submitters themselves were treated with an extraordinary level of contempt and abuse by some committee members.
The community that we are here to serve is rightly outraged. Submitters were not even permitted the basic dignity of being written to by the committee and thanked for their efforts to make submissions. At least the Green Party wrote to those who sought an oral hearing, to thank them for their effort and contribution to the democratic process. Despite the abuse suffered by those submitters who came to the committee, many presented their views with compassion and respect. Some certainly expressed frustration and anger. Many brought stories about their ongoing commitment to the coast and their continued efforts to protect the coast from unsustainable development and the damage made by 4-wheel drive vehicles and other destructive human activities. They told of their efforts to protect the planting of indigenous species that are under threat, their efforts to protect the nesting sites of rare and threatened birds and, of course, their efforts to protect their own wahi tapu. Those stories came from the people, Maori and Pakeha, who live on the coast and are the most affected by any changes to the legal status of the coast itself.
I have described this bill as deceptive, and I say that because for all the rhetoric about the protection of public access, the bill turns the foreshore and seabed into a saleable commodity and repeals one of the few requirements for public access. This bill hides a myriad of hidden agendas. Some are just pure opportunism-for example, the taking of Te Whanga Lagoon on the Chatham Islands. The ownership of Te Whanga Lagoon is the subject of current litigation-litigation that has been very difficult for everyone involved-but the courts are the legitimate forum for that dispute. This Government is using the Foreshore and Seabed Bill to take ownership of the lagoon for itself, even though the lagoon is not within the coastal marine area. It wants to do that just because it can. There is no justification. It is a simple theft.
One serious deception is the removal of mandatory marginal strips under the Conservation Act. That clause is hidden in the bill and kept quiet by the Government so that no one will notice. Currently, the law states that when reclaimed land is vested as fee simple-for example, in a marina-a marginal strip must be set aside for public use and access. That marginal strip can be exchanged for similar coastal-access land, but it remains one of the few legal provisions for guaranteed public access over private coastal foreshore land. This Government-Labour along with the complicit New Zealand First-will repeal that law with this bill. They will replace the mandatory public access provisions with an optional one. For the residents of the North Shore in Auckland who have been fighting through the North Shore City Council to have Bayswater Marina provide a marginal strip, this bill is a direct kick in the guts, denying them the public access over reclaimed land they that are legally entitled to and have been fighting for for so long. In a letter, the Mayor of North Shore City, George Wood, pleaded with the Minister of Conservation to remove that clause from the bill, but that call has fallen on deaf ears.
This bill will strip away existing public access provisions, and, of course, any reclaimed land that is in the process of becoming private freehold title is allowed to proceed under the bill. Applications for private fee simple title and reclaimed foreshore land will proceed, creating a number of further freehold titles in the foreshore and seabed. That is exactly what New Zealanders, Maori and Pakeha, have been saying they do not want. Not only does this bill take away guaranteed public access along reclaimed land and create further freehold titles in the foreshore but it also creates saleable customary rights. For Maori that is the ultimate deception, and it cuts directly to the bone. For 18 months now, Maori have said that they do not want freehold title; they want collective customary title that recognises their full kaitiakitanga rights and responsibilities.
Maori acknowledge that there is a public interest in the beaches, and they want to find a way to share them that does not undermine their tikanga. They want what the law says they are entitled to-just as any Pakeha New Zealander would want. But the Government has been spreading the vicious untruth that Maori cannot be trusted. In fact, it is the Government that cannot be trusted, along with New Zealand First, as evidenced in the sneaky provisions of the bill and the 67 pages of ill-considered amendments that the public will not have the chance to see before the law is passed. This bill provides for the privatisation of the foreshore, and it sets up an easy process for customary rights orders to be sold off and extinguished forever. The foreshore becomes a commodity, and Maori lose forever their customary rights that come to them as taonga tuku iho.
Maori pose no threat to the foreshore. The Government, however, hides its real agenda of commodification. With the easy cancellation of customary rights orders, along with the repeal of the marginal strip provisions and the existing freehold reclamation applications being allowed to proceed, Labour and New Zealand First are creating saleable, tradable fee simple titles in the foreshore and seabed-the exact opposite of everything they say they are trying to do. So much for New Zealand First's supposed campaign for public ownership! In supporting this bill, that party supports the trade in New Zealand's coast.
The Greens support access to the courts for Maori, for a declaration of customary land status and the development of collaborative management in the coastal marine area. We believe that there should be no saleable, private, and exclusive title granted over the foreshore and seabed to anyone-to New Zealanders in general, to tangata whenua, or to overseas interests. Te Ture Whenua Maori Act must be amended so that Maori customary foreshore and seabed land has to remain in Maori ownership.
Collective customary title to the foreshore and seabed should be upheld and not extinguished by legislation, and public access should be protected, except for those areas where environmental protection or historical, cultural, and spiritual significance make that inappropriate.
We have also suggested that the Government consider the Brookfield model as a potentially politically unifying alternative, but practical, effective, and just solutions will not satisfy this Government. The rights of Maori and of all the citizens of this country are being trampled. The cost of that will be borne for generations to come. The Greens have consistently proposed solutions that meet the needs of all New Zealanders and do not make our community complicit in a 19th century confiscation.
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