Cullen says seabed and foreshore bill fair to all

1.00pm

Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen says those marching against the Government's foreshore and seabed legislation are mistaken.

Dr Cullen said today some Maori seemed to believe that they legally owned the foreshore and seabed.

The Court of Appeal had never said that and Parliament and a majority of New Zealanders had never envisaged it either.

It was impossible to build a full consensus on the issue and the Government had to act to end uncertainty, he said.

Dr Cullen asked what the Government was supposed to do -- accept sacked Associate Maori Affairs Minister Tariana Turia's position that Maori owned the foreshore and seabed... "or do we reinforce the current law which actually does say the Crown owns the foreshore and seabed?"

Dr Cullen said the legislation would allow some recognition of customary rights and was fair and supported by the majority of New Zealanders.

The Foreshore and Seabed Bill allowed redress for anything that Maori lost due to the law change.

"That is not the sort of stuff that goes down terribly well in an awful lot of the pakeha constituency. Let's be quite blunt about that. This Government is stretching pakeha tolerance a long way in terms of the package it has put forward.

Dr Cullen said Maori who argued that they should own the foreshore and seabed because they would not stop public access were missing the point .

"Pakeha say bluntly, and I agree, that we have a right to go to the beaches not by grace or favour."

Former Ngai Tahu chief executive Sir Tipene O'Regan said anger over the foreshore and seabed policy was only part of Maori anger.

"You have got to look at that in the context of all the other disenchantment that Maori have, particularly those Maori south of Lake Taupo. You have got the fisheries allocation bill going into the House at the moment which they regard as a huge expropriation of property rights," Sir Tipene said.

The original claim to ownership of the foreshore and seabed had been sparked by discrimination against Maori under the Resource Management Act.

There was also anger at the way Maori were treated by the commercial fishing industry.

"That whole collection of grievance and what they see as misbehaviour of the state... they see all that as part and parcel of the package of the Pakeha state being opposed to Maori," Sir Tipene said.

The Foreshore and Seabed Bill was a confiscation of a "package of rights".

"What those rights amount to is another matter... it has got very clouded."

The Court of Appeal had said there were arguments about property rights and laid out a way for them to be tested.

Sir Tipene said the uncertainty this created had "frightened the horses" and allowed National to raise racial tensions by misleadingly raising questions over access to beaches.

Maori who had put forward reasonable policy solutions had been ignored by the Government and others.

"What has been destroyed is our capacity for consensus."

- NZPA