Marine and Coastal Bill no better than last: Annette Sykes

Te Arawa lawyer and Maori activist Annette Sykes is appalled with the Marine and Coastal Bill which is to replace the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004, and says she won't support the Maori Party if the legislation is passed.
Maori Party MPs, the National Party and iwi leaders have prepared a bill that would repeal the act and is planned to be made law by the end of next month.
However, Ms Sykes said she would not support the legislation until changes were made to its threshold.
She said there were many unhappy iwi who opposed the legislation through submissions and described it as "racist to Maori people" and too similar to the 2004 Foreshore and Seabed Act.
"Unless Maori are given some type of rights, I will not support the act and refuse to go down in history as giving away what belongs to the Maori to the public domain to control," Ms Sykes said.
"We will not allow more confiscation to happen without an intellectual debate," she said.
"Why is the legislation being rushed without further discussion? They're trying to push it and make it happen faster, but the issue won't go away."
"We've already lost so much. This is a huge, complex issue and there's nothing in this new Bill that provides us with anything new than what Labour offered."
Ngati Makino kaumatua Te Ariki Morehu and Bay Of Plenty Regional Council Mauao Maori Councillor Raewyn Bennett were also unhappy with the Bill.
Mr Morehu believed it would deny Maori people rights to the foreshore and seabed and said people didn't understand why it was a huge issue for Maori.
"We are sharing people. It's not like we claim the foreshore to ourselves and not let anyone else use it," he said.
"It's only right if people and companies benefit from our resources they ask permission first. I feel gutted. What are they going to take next?" he said.
Mrs Bennett said she did not support the Bill for two reasons.
"My constituents through no fault of theirs, their lands were confiscated, have no chance of meeting the threshold for proving continuous occupation," she said.
"Secondly at Maketu, we, the ahi kaa, have never given up our title to the foreshore and seabed, despite the disgusting damage done to our beaches through previous governments, and councils taking land for roads," she said.
'I don't care what the legislation ends up looking like, I still regard this foreshore and seabed to be mine and my people's."
She said she didn't blame the Maori Party for not getting a better outcome. "It would've been too much to expect, given the level of anti-Maori sentiment in Parliament, to deliver anything else."
Waiariki MP Te Ururoa Flavell said the Maori Party were always going to try and restore the rights to test customary ownership on the foreshore and seabed and were doing their best to "do what we said we would achieve".
"Many Maori said the foreshore seabed didn't go far enough and on the other hand, many Pakeha said it went too far. We had to find a balance, so we addressed the key issues," he said.
"We are comfortable where we are sitting at the moment."'
 
Marine and Coastal Area Bill
- Applies to the area formerly known as the foreshore and seabed, which will be known in future as the marine and coastal area. It creates a common space which allows the interests and rights of all New Zealanders in the marine and coastal area to be recognised in law.
- Guarantees free public access in the common marine and coastal area
- Guarantees and, in some cases, extends existing rights for navigation, ports, fishing and aquaculture.
- Provides for the customary interests and rights of Maori in the common marine and coastal area to be recognised.
- This recognition will include the right to go to the High Court or negotiate an out-of-court settlement with the Crown to seek customary marine title for areas with which groups such as iwi and hapu have a long-standing and exclusive history of use and occupation.