Anybody out there able to tell me what is really happening here?
As I understand it, there are only two forms of title to land, Crown and private. Except for this nebulous idea of “customary title”. The Act of 2004 was basically to reaffirm all seabed and foreshore property not in private hands as owned by the Crown, and to preserve such property from “native/ customary title” claims.
Now National wants to repeal the 2004 Act so that Maori tribes can lay claim (through the Waitangi Tribunal I assume) to Crown land they considers they have “customary title” to.
Now maybe I have this wrong. It sounds to me like the root of the problem is this “customary title” concept. If a Maori tribe has a claim to Crown land under normal title then fair enough. However, claiming land under some nebulous PC concept dreamed up to appease racists and separatists is not something I would want to encourage. This whole “customary title” concept needs to be abandoned, and if it is, the Seabed and Foreshore issue should fade away. In the meantime, if the 2004 Act is preventing “customary title” claims being made on Crown land, then I’m for it, even if it was introduced by Helen Klark’s government.
TrueblueNZ 
4 responses to “Seabed and Foreshore Confusion”
The very phrase “seabed and foreclosure property” strikes me as odd. You have heard of the UN’s Law of the Sea Treaty? L.O.S.T. It seems to me that NZ traitors will sign onto that (if they already have not), and that would render all this talk about ownership of seabeds moot.
These two items happens to be one of the areas where I worry about Palin. She favors L.O.S.T. as well as pushed and signed bills as governor aimed at “addressing AGW.”
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AGW = CAGW
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The whole grievance industry is built on the idea that Maori have a property right based on ownership of land that was established before Europeans arrived.
It is nonsense of course.
For a property right to exist, both the property and the owner or owners need to be properly defined. In terms of property ownership, “iwi” or “Maori” are nebulous terms. The law requires certainty and “iwi” does not establish a clear and concise owner. Who exactly are “iwi”, and how is ownership of a given asset divided among the members of said “iwi”? All the lawyers and bureaucrats involved in the treaty claims process cannot answer this question, but are happy to keep on crusading on behalf of these loosely defined groups as long as other people keep paying them to do so.
Property rights did not exist in NZ during pre-European times. There was no civil society. Land was not owned, it was merely occupied, and this occupation lasted only until one tribe was run off the land by another. Establishment of pre-European land ownership appears to be based on the most recent occupier of a piece of land irrespective of any previous occupation.
Maori land claims, like any claims involving property, should be made through the civil courts where the claimants would need to show exactly what land was stolen, who stole it, and who were the individuals it was stolen from. As things stand, the NZ taxpayer is now being held liable for these alleged thefts. It should not be forgotten that Maori are taxpayers too, which would mean that many of them will be paying out money to atone for the perceived wrongdoings of the very people they may well have claims against.
Bill.
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BR , Right on!
Can you remember back before the election , before the last election?
A group of east coast Iwi wanted resourse consent to run a paua breeding bussiness and had developed an r&d example to show everyone the feasability of this enterprise?
All they were wanting was support and permission to pump salt water up to their paua nursery and then pump the water back down to the sea.
What happened?.
Klark government scuttled and destroyed their whole idea , south island Iwi wanted only to farm mussels for export and klark gov shat on them as well.
‘You cant run a successful enterprise and make money by yourselve’s!’
You belong to the labour party and you must stay poor and dependent on us!’
Hence ,the now infamous battle for the foreshore and seabed crap.
Once again the commies fuck it all up!
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