Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says the Waitangi Tribunal’s report on the functioning of the Marine and Coast Area (Takutai Moana) Act is an indictment of the legislation created by National and the Māori Party.
The tribunal has criticised the crown’s failure to properly explain to Māori how the Act was supposed to work or the fund for the full cost of claims and cross claims for recognition of customary ownership.
Mr Peters says replacing the previous Foreshore and Seabed Act raised unrealistic expectations.
"We in the Māori world well know that the sea in pre-European times was a highway and was shared by everybody and all our stories and all our history say that's true. Now under some stupid misguided legislation that the National Party brought in at the behest of the Māori Party, all the tribes mow and all the iwi fighting with themselves who owns what on the foreshore and seabed – 3500 claims," he says.
Winston Peters says it’s a distraction from issues like housing, jobs and the health of Māori.
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