KEY POINTS:
A "Maori embassy" has been opened in a posh Sunshine Coast suburb, plastered with signs declaring the Australian government and the Queensland Parliament "fraudulently created entities".
The signs warn trespassers at the sprawling Bonavista Crescent home that they risk fines of up to A$10,000 ($12,387) and imprisonment for up to six months if they wander onto its manicured grounds, the Courier Mail newspaper reported on its website.
The embassy has its neighbours in the suburb, Doonan, near Noosa Heads, scratching their heads, as the home's occupants claim to have established the diplomatic headquarters under the Te Ture Whenua Maori Act (Maori Land Act) of 1993.
All glass doors of the home are plastered with trespass notices co-signed by the apparent "Maori ambassador to Australia" - whose name is "Joe" - and the home's occupant.
"It's a bit rich that he can come over from New Zealand and then start throwing his weight around like this claiming our governments and companies are fraudulent, and putting up big signs," a neighbour said.
The home's occupants, Shane Patrick McKenna and Sonia Elizabeth Begley, weren't at the house 180km north of Brisbane this week.
A housesitter, named Michelle, who was sleeping in an on-site guest house, told The Noosa Journal that Mr McKenna and Ms Begley had established a similar diplomatic building in New Zealand and divided their time between the two.
The pair were each fined $750 in Tauranga District Court in 2007 for refusing to supply information to New Zealand's tax department.
A spokesman for the New Zealand Consulate-General in Brisbane it was not aware of the purported Sunshine Coast counterpart.
"New Zealand diplomatic representation in Australia is the New Zealand High Commission in Canberra and Consulates-General in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane," the spokesman said.
"There is no other diplomatic representation in Australia outside these posts."
- NZPA
