February 02, 2021
Foreshore and Seabed regrets as Porou deal inked
Treaty of Negotiations Minister Andrew Little says today’s Labour Government would not have taken the action of its predecessor in barring Māori access to the courts.
The government yesterday gazetted the first and only agreement on customary rights started under the controversial 2004 Foreshore and Seabed Act, spelling out the rights and interests of Ngāti Porou hapū and iwi in 14 areas along the East Cape and East Coast.
Mr Little says it has taken a long time to work out an appropriate way to recognise customary rights in the takutai moana.
"I think if Labour had its time again in the early 2000s, it wouldn't have taken the step of preventing iwi going to court to test what their legal rights were, but we did what we did at the time. We're big enough and ugly enough to look back and say it wasn't necessarily the right thing to do. We know there was a lot of political heat in the issue but you don't prevent somebody from going to court to test their legal rights," he says.
Other iwi will have to pursue their customary rights under the mechanisms in the Māori Party-backed Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana Act) – which is itself under review by the Waitangi Tribunal as to whether it complies with Treaty of Waitangi principles.
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