Government silent on Maori Land Court ruling

The Government is refusing to comment on a report that the Maori Land Court is allowing a large Maori coastal claim to go ahead.

The oral judgment, which was delivered in Gisborne on Tuesday, comes despite government plans to develop a foreshore and seabed policy which would stop courts granting title to the foreshore and seabed.

Legislation on the policy has been dogged by controversy but the Government hopes to have it drawn up later this month.

A spokeswoman for Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen said the Government would not comment on the Gisborne ruling, in which Judge Caren Wickliffe indicated that she wanted the court to proceed with a hearing.

Judge Wickliffe called the 11 applicant groups who lodged claims in the Tairawhiti region together for the judicial conference.

She rejected Crown Law submissions that a hearing should be stayed because the Port of Marlborough had lodged an application to appeal against the Court of Appeal foreshore ruling.

That decision raised the prospect of the land court issuing private foreshore and seabed title, and that in turn prompted the Government to move to prevent coastal privatisation through legislation.

In her judgment, Judge Wickliffe also rejected the Crown's argument that a stay was justified because of the Government's plans to draw up legislation on this issue, the newspaper reported.

The Land Court has set down two further applications for hearing foreshore claims next month, in Hawera and Wanganui.

- NZPA