Foreshore & Seabed: Aquaculture carve up is the confiscation

The Labour government - Clark, Cullen and Wilson - agreed to the confiscation option primarily because they assumed it was the easiest course to take to clear the way for the carve up of the marine space. The Labour government didn't set out to pick a fight with Maori, they didn't set out to use the issue as a cynical election ploy to attract conservative/racist Pakeha voters either. They simply carried out what every European-dominated government and administration always has, because in their understanding the purpose of the Crown is to facilitate Pakeha and foreign interests at the expense of Maori - that's the default setting for the the Crown. The government was prepared to ram through the confiscation law even though the Attorney-General's own advice was that it was discriminatory.

What they agreed to was a statutory fix that allowed the aquaculture legislation to have full effect and be incontestable in court. That is what the F&S Act did - it paved the way for the marine space allocation. There are billions of dollars at stake and the non-Maori are set to be the big recipients of the carve up - that is where the pressure is coming from.
So this is what it is all about. We would not have had the dispute were it not for the marine farming interests. At the heart of this is a deal "the Kidd deal" that allocates 20% of the space to Iwi Maori and 80% to everyone else. What this really means is that the government will confiscate 80% of marine space off Maori. Another way of looking at it is that the government will only recognise Maori marine farms if the government gets 400% of the space that they can lease out to whomever they want. Whatever angle you choose to view it from a split like 80/20 - or indeed any split at all - when Maori may well own, or have a traditional and continuing responsibility towards, 100% of the marine area (in places) is still a confiscation.

So, to this extent, public access on the beaches is something of a side show.

As I said in the original Ministerial review back in 2003 all the government needs do is pass a very short law stating that public access and rights of navigation apply to all unenclosed areas of the foreshore and seabed regardless of the property status. The rest - aquaculture space, property titles etc - are complex and need time to be dealt with properly. For what seems like the thousandth time, I recommend passing a very short bill addressing public access concerns (and something like that exists in the early part of the Foreshore & Seabed Act) and start the work on aquaculture and title after that.

Of course the marine farming interests that are about to get "free" grants from the Crown for exclusivity over marine space are driving the agenda here. It will be a massive windfall gain for these operators.