Left parties far apart on foreshore and seabed

By KEVIN TAYLOR

The Greens will reserve their position on the Government's foreshore and seabed plan until they have seen the legislation.

The party's annual summer policy conference this weekend includes a session on the issue, but MPs say its final position will not be decided then.

The Sunday session at the Dunedin conference will probably be more about informing the party, MPs say. They expect little division on the party's stance so far - to oppose much of the Government's proposal.

Announced last month, the plan is to put the foreshore and seabed in "public domain" title that cannot be sold, and establish a process by which Maori can attain customary title and have a larger say over coastal development.

The policy is controversial even within the ranks of Labour's own Maori MPs, and the party faces a possible numbers squeeze in Parliament, making the Greens' position more important than it would usually be.


But the gulf between the Government and Greens is wide.

Greens Maori affairs spokeswoman Metiria Turei said the Government should look again at the need to legislate for public domain, which would extinguish Maori customary land and title.

The Government would also have to amend its "inconsistent" position where it placed public domain alongside "Maori customary ownership" but did not do the same with private title. A new process to ascertain customary title over foreshore and seabed was usurping the Waitangi Tribunal's role, she said.

The Greens are also concerned that public domain would not stop the Crown selling the foreshore and seabed, as it did with other state assets in the 1980s.

Greens treaty spokesman Nandor Tanczos labelled the proposal "racist" because it took away property rights and court processes from a people because they were Maori.

"The Government's not proposing to do that to any Pakeha owners of foreshore and seabed or any overseas owners, and that's just fundamentally wrong."

Other issues at the conference include housing, economics, cannabis, employment relations, human-assisted reproduction and biosecurity.

On Monday, a new waste policy will be launched.