Chris Finlayson

By Peter Wilson of NZPA

Wellington, Sept 6 NZPA - The foreshore and seabed is being given a new name under legislation, released today, which will replace the existing controversial laws governing it.

It is defined as the Common Marine and Coastal Area, a change understood to have been decided because the Government wants to get away from the anguish and confrontation caused by the 2004 Foreshore and Seabed Act.

Attorney-General Chris Finlayson's Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill, which will be debated by Parliament for the first time on Thursday, repeals the Foreshore and Seabed Act and replaces it with a new regime announced in June after agreement had been reached with the Maori Party and iwi leaders.

The Maori Party has pledged support for the bill and the Government has enough votes on it to ensure it is passed by Parliament, possibly by the end of the year.

"Our rights as New Zealanders in the marine and coastal area are not in conflict," Mr Finlayson said when he released the bill.

"This bill, unlike the Foreshore and Seabed Act which it replaces, treats all New Zealanders, including Maori, without discrimination and recognises that we all have legitimate and longstanding interests in this part of our heritage."

Under the new legislation the foreshore and seabed will be removed from Crown ownership and will become a common space with public access guaranteed.

Existing private titles will not be affected but there will not be any new ones.

Iwi will be able to seek customary title through negotiation with the Government or through the High Court, and to gain that title they will have to prove exclusive use and occupation since 1840.

The Government expects very little of the coast will come under customary titles, which give holders limited development rights under the usual resource consent process.

Where the right to customary title can be proved, it will sit alongside the common area rights of public access, fishing, navigation and existing uses.

Mr Finlayson said that in some cases the bill extended existing rights associated with navigation, fishing, aquaculture and port operations.

The previous government passed the Foreshore and Seabed Act following a 2003 Court of Appeal ruling in the Ngati Apa case which raised the possibility, in some narrow instances, for Maori customary title to be converted into freehold title.

That had the potential to put parts of the coastline under Maori control, and Labour legislated against it.

Widespread Maori opposition culminated in Tariana Turia leaving the Labour Party and forming the Maori Party, which vowed to see the Act repealed.

Mrs Turia and the party's other co-leader, Pita Sharples, were out the country today.

Its acting leader, Te Ururoa Flavell, said the new bill was something iwi across the country had been longing for.

"This bill will give iwi a real say in the management of the coastal areas in their tribal domains in a way that was never possible before," he said.

The bill will go to a select committee for public submissions after its first reading on Thursday.

Mr Flavell said there could be "some refining" of it during the process.