(TAKUTAI MOANA) BILL E kau I te wai e, e kau I te wa

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Detailed TRW Comments on the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill. 3.1 Discriminatory Form of Title 3.1. The new form of customary title proposed by the Bill fails to recognise and provide for the mana and authority that our hapū and iwi have exercised in relation to our takutai Moana from time immemorial, and that was protected by Te Tiriti o Waitangi. 3.2 The Waitangi Tribunal has reported that the harbour and its foreshores were and remain crucial aspects of Tauranga Moana iwi and hapū economic, cultural and spiritual well-being and identity. Tauranga Moana was and is, clearly and indisputably, a taonga of all of the hapū of Tauranga Moana, including Ngā hapū o Ngāti Ranginui. The Tribunal went further to find that in usurping ownership over Tauranga Moana the Crown committed a number of Treaty breaches. 4 TRW submits that this usurpation is continued by the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill. 3.3 The Bill constructs a space termed the common marine and coastal area of which no one is capable of owning (clause 11). The Bill then specifically excludes freehold title located within the foreshore and seabed from forming part of that common marine and coastal area (clause 7). The Bill therefore retains privilege to an exclusive group of existing private owners that have freehold in their land contiguous to the foreshore and seabed and creates a new form of title for iwi and hapū that is specifically defined as being less than freehold title (clause 63). The Bill is selective about what parts of the foreshore are seabed are available under the new customary marine title and then heavily limits the rights available to hapū and iwi in clause 64. This new form of title is therefore a discriminatory form of title that disadvantages TRW in that it is a subordinate title predicated on a notion of essentially subordinate Māori rights. TRW therefore urges the select committee to rectify this aspect of the Bill. 4 Page 608. 8
4. TRW’s Proposed Solution to Issues of Title 4.1 TRW refers to the Ngāti Whatua o Orakei for an exemplary model of ownership and control of foreshore on the Auckland waterfront. TRW is supportive of Ngāti Whatua o Orakei’s model on the basis that it retains the mana of hapū over the foreshore and offers a solution that embraces the principle of partnership between Māori and the Crown. 4.2 Ngāti Whatua o Orakei acquired fee simple title to the foreshore at Okahu Bay in 1991. The foreshore forms part of an area classed as ‘whenua rangatira’ which has been set aside for the common use and benefit of members of the hapu and citizens of the City of Auckland. The management is undertaken by the Orakei Reserves Board which comprises 50/50 representation from Ngāti Whatua o Orakei and the Auckland City Council. 4.3 Twelve years after its inception (and during the first consultation process regarding the Crown’s foreshore and seabed and policy) Sir Hugh Kawharu offered the model as one that could be adopted as a solution for foreshore and seabed issues: It is a benign but efficient regime; and here at least the mana of Ngati Whatua stands tall, intact and protected. In light of the current debate, I can confirm that public access to the foreshore of Okahu Bay has been unrestricted from the day title returned to Ngati Whatua. 5 TRW urges the select committee to consider this model as a solution to the ownership and control of the foreshore and seabed in Tauranga Moana. 5. Prejudicial Impacts of the Bill on iwi and hapu who have suffered Raupatu 5.1 The Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill must be repealed or amended in order to remove discriminatory and unjust aspects and that reinforce earlier injustices to Ngā Hapū o Ngāti Ranginui caused by raupatu and that amount to continuing breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. 5.2 Clause 60(1) provides that title to areas within the takutai moana/ common marine and coastal area can be granted if the applicant can show that they: 5 Document A35 (Kawharu), para 58-65. 9
Page 1 and 2: MĀORI AFFAIRS SELECT COMMITTEE SUB
Page 3 and 4: As a youngster it was all fun throw
Page 5 and 6: in consequence of the word of the E
Page 7: the silt that emanates from the Kop
Page 11 and 12: Conclusion coastal area if, in rela

(TAKUTAI MOANA) BILL E kau I te wai e, e kau I te wa

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?