The Environmental Defence Society lodged its submissions on the Reviewing the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004 Consultation Document with the Ministry of Justice this afternoon.

"Official's proposals for the foreshore and seabed are hugely disappointing," said EDS Senior Policy Analyst Raewyn Peart.

"I had hoped to see some innovative thinking which incorporated a solution on the foreshore and seabed issue with a broader review of coastal marine law.

"The Ministerial Review Panel saw this potential and recommended that the development of final legislation on the foreshore and seabed be integrated into such a review.

"The government has itself acknowledged the mess the current law is in by referring, in the consultation document, to the more than 40 pieces of legislation that currently apply to the foreshore and seabed.

"But instead of simplifying and modernising this tangle of outdated and overlapping laws, the government is trying to tack a band-aid solution onto the foreshore and seabed issue. It recently adopted a similar approach for aquaculture.

"This short-sighted approach will be bad for the environment, bad for Māori, bad for business and bad for the public more generally.

"EDS is concerned at the proposal to give hapū and iwi the right to veto the establishment of marine reserves. New Zealand already has a poor track record at protecting its marine area. Currently less than three percent of the territorial sea surrounding the New Zealand mainland is protected by marine reserves compared with the IUCN recommendation of 20 per cent or more.

"The Marine Reserves Act 1971 is very outdated and is becoming increasingly dysfunctional. It is in urgent need of revision. Such a revision should include the development of mechanisms to incorporate a stronger role for Māori in marine conservation decisions.

"But this needs to be achieved while still protecting the broader public interest in the ongoing health of our marine areas. The current proposals fall far short of achieving this balance.

"EDS's submission recommends the establishment of a Coastal Commission to oversee the badly needed reform process for our marine laws.

"The Commission could include representatives of central and local government, Māori and public interest groups. It would be consistent with the Ministerial Review Panel's recommendation that a national working group or commission be established to develop specific proposals on the foreshore and seabed issue.

"We only hope that the government will take a longer term and broader view of the foreshore and seabed issue and see it as just part of the complex and inadequate legal framework for managing our coast.

We need government Ministers to look at the national interest in the coast and come up with an integrated way forward that deals with the interests of all New Zealanders in both good coastal management and recognition of customary rights," Ms Peart concluded.

A copy of EDS's submission can be downloaded at http://www.eds.org.nz/.

A copy of EDS's recently published e-book Managing the Marine Environment which sets out the legal and policy framework for coastal management is available free on the same website.