Te Ururoa Flavell

By Maggie Tait of NZPA

The new marine and coastal legislation may not be a final solution to the divisive foreshore and seabed issue and could be relitigated in future, Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell says.

The Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill will be debated in Parliament next Tuesday instead of this week so the Maori Party co-leaders Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples, currently overseas, can be there.

The bill repeals the Foreshore and Seabed Act. That law was passed in 2004 by the previous Labour government following a 2003 Court of Appeal ruling in the Ngati Apa case that raised the possibility, in some narrow instances, for Maori customary title to convert into freehold title.

Widespread Maori opposition followed, and Mrs Turia quit Labour to form the Maori Party.

Mr Flavell said the new bill was the result of extensive consultation.

"We are comfortable with the outcome and we are hoping that the select committee process will allow everyone to have a say."

Under the new replacement legislation the foreshore and seabed will be removed from Crown ownership and 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.

"We accept that not everyone will be happy but we also accept that at this point in time iwi leadership is comfortable, we're comfortable... we're happy to move forward," Mr Flavell said.

Labour said the new bill did not change anything of substance but it would support it through its first reading.

Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei said it did not address the fundamental injustice that Maori had lost ownership rights and her party would be voting against it.

Auckland University of Technology history professor and treaty specialist Dr Paul Moon said some would be disappointed by the bill and the bar to prove customary title was very high.

He was also concerned the Government would rush decisions about which groups had claims and not allow full investigations to happen first.

Mr Flavell said the party had negotiated a bill that allowed Maori to obtain customary title.

"We accept that not everyone will be happy, we accept it's not the purest line that some would want, but it's certainly the best we could do under the circumstances and we are very comfortable with making it move forward."

He accepted the bill may not end the matter.

"Possibly not. I suspect this is for the here and the now, this is best we can negotiate... at the end of the day it's for iwi to decide."

He said the Maori Party had kept its promise of allowing Maori access to justice. He did not rule out trying to get better gains in future: "What happens after the next election, who knows?"

Mr Flavell was initially not willing to commit to firebrand MP Hone Harawira putting his vote behind the bill but eventually said he was confident all five Maori MPs would back it all the way.

When the proposals were announced in June Mr Harawira said they represented "pandering to rednecks".

Mr Flavell said it "would not be a very good look" if all the Maori Party MPs did not support the bill in Parliament.

Attorney-General Chris Finlayson hoped the legislation was a permanent solution.

"I don't think people want to be relitigating this issue every decade, and it's in the public interest that we have a durable piece of legislation."

Prime Minister John Key also said the Government did not want to "spend our life re-litigating this issue".

"We've got something on the table. We're happy with it. I'm sure not everyone will be, including a number of iwi groups. Well, that's just the way it is."

The bill was likely to be enacted early next year.

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