UN man advises overhaul or scrapping of Foreshore Act

A UN investigator is recommending that the Government should change or scrap the Foreshore and Seabed Act.

Rodolfo Stavenhagen, who visited New Zealand last year, said Maori have had to accept limited and insufficient redress on land issues, only to be faced with accusations of undue privilege.

He also said the idea that Maori should have to conform to Western culture was increasingly being aired in public.

Dr Stavenhagen has released the second draft of his report into indigenous issues in New Zealand and has taken a harder line than in his first report, Newstalk ZB reported.

He recommended the repeal or amendment of the Foreshore and Seabed Act and suggests the Treaty of Waitangi, MMP system and Bill of Rights be entrenched in law.

He also asked for the Waitangi Tribunal to be given legally binding and enforceable powers.

However, the Prime Minister was scathing about the report.

She said the first draft was grossly inaccurate and suggested some of those problems had been carried through to the second.

Helen Clark said New Zealand sees the report as a missed opportunity to get a balanced look at what happens here.

Dr Stavenhagen said in a statement last November: "Particularly troubling to Maori at the present time is the Foreshore and Seabed Act, which according to numerous legal scholars and practitioners, would extinguish the customary rights of Maori communities that have traditionally used coastal resources for subsistence."

He noted that the UN committee which monitors how countries implement the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, "had expressed concern over the way the Act is framed, the undue haste by which it was enacted and the insufficient prior consultations with Maori themselves".

He was due to make his full report to the UN Commission on Human Rights this month.

- NEWSTALK ZB, HERALD ONLINE STAFF