WELLINGTON Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand has labelled the 2004 Foreshore and Seabed Act the greatest breach of the Treaty of Waitangi in modern times and is calling for its repeal. In a submission to a ministerial review panel examining the Act, the Catholic agency for justice, peace and development has called for a longer conversation on the issue, something the Waitangi Tribunal proposed as a way to reach an accommodation that recognised property rights while preserving public access.
If Maori are still willing to participate in dialogue and negotiation, then we believe that is the best way forward, said Caritas director Michael Smith. However, the generosity of Maori in being willing to discuss such alternatives in 2004 was not met with an equal generosity on the part of the Crown.
Any conversation on the Act should only take place with Maori consent, Mr Smith said.
The process by which a unilateral solution was imposed by the majority on the indigenous minority must not be repeated in 2009.
Caritas was one of more than 35 Catholic organisations and individuals that opposed the Foreshore and Seabed Bill in 2004, saying the provisions of the legislation were out of step with Catholic social teaching on the rights of indigenous people.
Other concerns included the removal of access to the courts and the discriminatory nature of the legislation, which removed property rights from Maori while not affecting non-Maori with title to coastal property in the foreshore.
