Tenth of coast is Maori says Tamihere

By RUTH BERRY political reporter

Maori would probably have succeeded in claiming ownership of at least a tenth of the foreshore and seabed if the Government had not intervened, says Land Information Minister John Tamihere.

His assertion is likely to annoy senior Government colleagues, who have downplayed the likelihood of groups gaining such title, saying the Court of Appeal had said the barriers to it were considerable.

Mr Tamihere's claims are based on Land Information New Zealand surveys which reveal Maori communally own just over 10 per cent of the land on New Zealand's 19,883km coastline.

Mr Tamihere said it was the first time concrete information had been collated quantifying Maori ownership of land beside the foreshore with no Queen's Chain in between.

It showed 1996km of Maori freehold land which had always been in tribal hands, giving those owners an "extraordinarily strong" foreshore and seabed case.

"If you were sizing the relevance of the Maori claim, from a Government perspective, we now know absolutely without doubt ... that no less than this would have got, more than likely, a freehold title.

"The burden of proof ... is minimal by dint of the fact that they have continued to hold their land and practise their customs on the shoreline."

The areas include most of the East Coast from Wairoa to Opotiki and significant parts of the Far North, Kaipara, Coromandel, the Bay of Plenty and Raglan.

Smaller coastal areas in Taranaki, Manawatu and Wairarapa and areas around the top and bottom of the South Island are also in Maori ownership.

Mr Tamihere accepted the Government had not conceded that Maori had such strong claims to private title before but said it had not previously had the proof.

"The politics of it [the Government's stance on the foreshore and seabed claim] was to ensure in the public's mind that it was not huge even in the event that it was real.

"We now know that it is real and that it isn't huge, but it isn't small."

Groups which did not own land next to the foreshore might have won similar cases, but it would have been more difficult to prove they had continuously exercised strong rights.

Mr Tamihere did not believe the information, obtained a week before the Government issued its foreshore and seabed policy last month, should force it to change its plans to prevent claims for private title to the foreshore and seabed.

But he indicated it should give Labour's Maori MPs greater leverage to strengthen the proposed customary rights policy. This now precludes any significant development rights to commercially exploit untapped resources in coastal areas.

"There needs to be further work done on the development rights," Mr Tamihere said. "If there's the opportunity to progress your people by some form of development, we're going to have to have a look at it."

The minister will today attend a hui in Kennedy Bay, Coromandel, where he holds shares in a block of Maori land by the sea.

He believed the Land Information NZ data should encourage "some fellow Kiwis to put their feet in our shoes and understand what it's like to wear them. It's not about us and them, it's about being just and fair".

The data should also challenge unfair assertions by some Maori leaders who had exaggerated the validity of some cases.

Te Ope Mana a Tai chairman Matiu Rei said Maori had always known their case was much stronger than the Government had suggested.

But it was also stronger than Mr Tamihere acknowledged, and the Court of Appeal had confirmed cases would not be restricted to groups with land next to the foreshore.

Ngati Porou lawyer Maatanuku Mahuika said the East Coast iwi knew it would have succeeded in gaining private title to most of the foreshore and seabed from the Turanganui River to Cape Runaway.


National MP Nick Smith says 52 foreshore and seabed claims covering 12 million hectares have been lodged with the Maori Land Court.