Iwi targets Government deep sea plans

By RUTH BERRY, political reporter

An iwi driving the foreshore and seabed case is threatening to upset Government plans to assert ownership rights over up to 2.5 million square kilometres of extra seabed through the United Nations.

The Government is planning to take the continental shelf claim to a UN commission in 2006 and has set aside $45 million for the project, which could have huge commercial spin-offs for the country.

But Hauraki, the iwi which hosted Saturday's national hui, has warned it may expose the Government to international embarrassment when it presents its case, if it has failed to properly resolve the foreshore and seabed debate by then.

Hauraki spokesman John McEnteer said the Court of Appeal decision on foreshore and seabed strengthened the Government's obligation to ensure iwi a key role in negotiations over the deep sea seabed.

He said it was "not helpful" to talk about ownership in relation to the continental shelf, but Maori had property rights to the seabed and the nature of those rights and how far they extended had yet to be discussed with the Government.

The Government has been working on the claim for several years.

Countries which border the sea have exclusive sovereign rights over the resources of the seabed of the continental shelf 200 miles out to sea.

New Zealand already has sovereignty over continental shelf beyond the 200-mile limit, but the boundaries have never been defined, leaving the extent of its jurisdiction unclear.

Countries whose continental shelf extends beyond 200 miles can, before 2009, make a submission to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf to resolve where the boundaries lie.

Research finished by the Government shows the shelf of the New Zealand mainland includes at least an extra 1 million square kilometres - 3.8 times the size of New Zealand - outside the 200-mile zone.

The maximum extra size of the shelf is calculated to be close to an extra 2.5 million square kilometres or almost 10 times times the area of New Zealand.

Mr McEnteer said New Zealand would assert jurisdiction over seabed going half way to Australia and close to Tonga and Fiji under its plans.

There is little economic activity around the seabed, but it may yet be a valuable income source.

It is home to minerals, petroleum, hydrocarbons and seafloor life such as sponges - which could be used for cancer research - which could yet be exploited.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is already in tough negotiations with Australia over where the boundaries meet and will hold another round of talks in September.

Mr McEnteer said Hauraki had already laid claim, through the Waitangi Tribunal, to property rights on seabed as far out as the 200-mile zone.

Other negotiations being conducted by the Waitangi Fisheries Commission over the Ocean's Policy made it clear iwi had interests in all seabed that New Zealand had sovereignty over.

The nature of these had to be worked out as part of the wider foreshore and seabed negotiations, before New Zealand began trading sovereignty rights with other countries, he said.

"The last thing the Government would want when it was presenting its case at an international forum, would be to have its indigenous people raising concerns that their rights are being taken away."

Regardless of the foreshore and seabed case, "If the Government want to put a case to the UN we want to go as treaty partners".

Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff said he believed the foreshore and seabed negotiations would be over before 2006.

Continental divide

Countries which border the sea have exclusive sovereign rights over the resources of the seabed of the continental shelf.

New Zealand has sovereignty over continental shelf beyond the 200-mile limit, but the boundaries have never been defined.

There is now little economic activity around the seabed but it may yet be an extremely valuable income source.