Customary title for Maori key part of foreshore and seabed plan

Photo / Brett Phibbs

No ownership and Maori being granted customary title form the basis of the Government's preferred option to repeal the divisive 2004 Foreshore and Seabed Act.

Attorney-General Christopher Finlayson will release four options in a consultation document due today but such is the sensitivity of the issue that yesterday he refused to comment.

The other three options involve two variants of Crown ownership and one which explores Maori ownership.

In February the Herald reported that the Government had put the no-ownership option to iwi and that United Future MP Peter Dunne thought that creating a "public domain" in law could see present regulatory regimes continue.

Sources said the plan had expanded to include granting Maori customary title to the area - a massive change from the 2004 act which explicitly extinguished claims by vesting ownership in the Crown. That action provoked a hikoi to Parliament.

The Labour Government brought in the law because of the Court of Appeal Ngati Apa decision that said Maori could explore customary title through the Maori Land Court - which opened the door for the foreshore to be converted into freehold title and sold.

To get around the problem the Government will legislate that customary title cannot be transferred to freehold.

What customary rights would flow from any customary title would go out for consultation, as would what court the title could be confirmed in.

Sources said the Government was sold on the idea of no one group owning the foreshore and seabed.

Yesterday, Apirana Mahuika, who leads Te Runanga o Ngati Porou - the only Maori group to get close to striking a deal under the current act setting out what its customary rights were - said each iwi should be responsible for negotiating with the Government independently about what its rights were.

Ngati Porou's deal, once legislated, includes veto rights over activities that might affect a hapu's relationship with the environment, the right to make customary fishing bylaws and name places, and establishes a statutory relationship between the iwi and the Gisborne Regional Council.

Mr Mahuika said the deal, which did not provide for customary title, gave the tribe mana over its area, far more important than ownership.

What Govt wants:

* Repeal the Foreshore and Seabed Act.

* Remove Crown ownership.

* Create a public domain over area. Effect will be that no one will own it but current laws such as Resource Management Act will still apply.

* Recognition of Maori customary title but could not be sold.

* Public access guaranteed.

* Existing use rights guaranteed.