Scramble to fix foreshore law flaw

Nineteen days after rushing the Foreshore and Seabed Act through Parliament, the Government was yesterday forced to patch it up.

It took urgency in Parliament to fix an unintended consequence of the legislation that would have nationalised all council-owned land reclaimed from the sea.

The Government had tried to fix the problem three weeks ago in another urgency session, but a drafting mistake left the unintended consequence intact.

If left unchanged the act would have enabled the Government to confiscate millions of dollars of prime real estate, such as Auckland's Britomart and Wellington's waterfront.

Green MP Metiria Turei said yesterday's fix-up was a "cynical manoeuvre" and a "bumbling attempt" to fix the first of many mistakes that would emerge from the foreshore legislation.

"The Government's indecent haste to pass the Foreshore Act ... has meant that it is likely to be riddled with stupid and costly mistakes like this one," she said.

The foreshore legislation was the end of a long-running row over ownership.

The Court of Appeal began the furore when it said the Maori Land Court had jurisdiction to hear claims to territory below the high tide mark.

The judges ruled that Crown ownership was not completely certain, and a claim to a customary title could in some cases possibly convert to a private title.

The Government legislated for Crown ownership and said it had put into written law all that Maori could have achieved under common law through the courts.

Many Maori saw it differently and said their land was being confiscated.

"The Government was so hasty in confiscating land from Maori that it ended up confiscating a whole lot of land from all New Zealanders, Maori and Pakeha," Mrs Turei said.

"It is now having to fix this embarrassing problem by hiding an amendment."

- NZPA