Maori in bid for compensation

By RUTH BERRY political reporter

Associate Maori Affairs Minister John Tamihere says some whanau and hapu may be entitled to compensation as a result of the Government's plans to remove their right to assert private ownership of the foreshore and seabed.

Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen appeared to open the door to the issue last week when he said the Government would engage in talks with groups whose "collection of customary rights was such that they would have amounted in total to something like a freehold title" if not for the legislation the Government would introduce.

Dr Cullen then refused to answer media questions about whether those talks could result in compensation, and downplayed its significance, saying: "I can see the headlines you're writing".

It was a "subsidiary" issue, as the Court of Appeal had said it was "very unlikely" a collection of rights could add up to something equivalent to a freehold title.

Mr Tamihere said Maori had customary rights which had to be explored and not just overridden.

"If exploration of those rights finds they have been extinguished, then that becomes an issue for compensation.

"The Government has determined very carefully that existing use rights will be protected. But it has also said all of it [the foreshore and seabed] will be held in the public domain."

If the Maori Land Court found that groups would have been entitled to seek a freehold title before the Government removed that right - which the Court of Appeal said they held - "then that's the extinguishment of a customary right in 2003". Compensation was the only real option.



Mr Tamihere would not comment on Dr Cullen's suggestions few customary rights cases would fall into that category.

But there are several million acres of communally owned Maori land across the country, which in a number of areas runs along the coast. Maori own much of the coastal land along the East Coast.

Government sources suggested yesterday that whanau, hapu and iwi which own that land may have a strong case when it comes to asserting, through the court, their private property rights to the foreshore had been extinguished by the Government.

It is understood the Government has not yet determined whether a claim for compensation would be channelled through the Waitangi Tribunal or through another court.

Under the Public Works Act, private property owners whose land is taken by the Government for public purposes are paid the market value of the land.

Waitangi Tribunal claimants typically get compensation equivalent to only a tiny part of the land taken or confiscated.

The Waitangi Fisheries Commission and Te Tau Ihu, the iwi which took the Court of Appeal case, have repeatedly said the Government must compensate if it goes through with its plans.

Paul Morgan, a spokesman for the Te Tau Ihu-led steering group Te Ope Mana a Tai, said yesterday he was pleased the Government was "at last" talking about compensation.

But the more important issue was the need for a much fuller Government recognition of Maori customary rights, commercial development rights and the right to co-manage the coastal space, he said.

Te Ope Mana a Tai said the public was being "grossly misled" by the Government, which wanted to erode and restrict customary rights, not protect them.

"It is clear that the Government's three principles of public access, Crown management and certainty for other users override and subordinate the protection of Maori customary rights," Mr Morgan said.

Speaker of the House Jonathan Hunt approved calls for an urgent debate on the foreshore and seabed.

Prime Minister Helen Clark was away, providing fuel for National leader Bill English's claims she was avoiding taking charge of the issue.

Mr English said the Government had raised Maori expectations without delivering and should now be honest with them.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters agreed, describing the Government's seven Maori electorate MPs as Snow White's seven dwarfs, who were lions on the marae and lambs in caucus. Maori would wake up in 2005 "wipe the sleep from their eyes" and vote for him, he said.

Green co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said the issue had become the "biggest political beat-up on Maori that I can remember".

United Future leader Peter Dunne appeared more supportive of the proposal to hold the foreshore and seabed in the public domain.