Labour's foreshore claims scaremongering, says Turia

Tariana Turia

The Maori Party has rejected Labour claims its foreshore and seabed bill is contradictory and has let Maori down, arguing its MPs are deliberately misrepresenting its contents.

Tariana Turia's private member's Foreshore and Seabed Act (Repeal) Bill has been the subject of Labour attacks - and the Maori Party used its annual conference in Christchurch to assure voters there was no truth to the criticisms, with Mrs Turia accusing Labour of "scaremongering".

Like its predecessor, the bill involves the reworking of several acts and appears to be confusing MPs trying to explain or translate various sections.

The bill aims to repeal Labour's Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004 in its entirety, enabling hapu and iwi to approach the courts to determine the ownership status of foreshore and seabed in their area.

Mrs Turia and Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples said the provisions in the bill vesting ownership in the Crown related only to land that had previously been vested in harbour boards and local authorities, including reclaimed land.

The bill's foreword says the sections relating to Crown ownership aim to restore provisions in the Foreshore and Seabed Revesting Act 1991.

Under the endowment act, almost all foreshore and seabed owned by local authorities prior to 1991 was revested in the Crown.

The 1991 act was repealed by the 2004 Act, which reaffirmed and extended Crown ownership of such land.

The Maori Party argues its bill simply restores the relevant clauses in the 1991 act to ensure the repeal takes the law back to the status quo.

The bill states in several sections that foreshore and seabed are to be "revested in Crown ownership".

This has been interpreted by Labour MP Shane Jones as giving all the land and titles in the foreshore back to the Crown - the opposite of the bill's stated intent.

He has said it shows the "sheer difference between their electoral rhetoric and the sheer graft required to find a solution to this really difficult and divisive issue".

Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia has also criticised the bill but was yesterday unwilling to assert it revested all land in the Crown.

He said there was division and confusion over the issue within the Maori Party about what the bill actually said.