Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says a planned rewrite of the Marine and Coastal Areas (Takutai Moana) Act will just take it back to what it was supposed to do in 2011.
The amending legislation will direct the courts to disregard the Court of Appeal’s interpretation of the law when it comes to deciding applications by hapou and iwi for customary marine title.
The Waitangi Tribunal yesterday started an urgent two day hearing in which tribal claimants have described the crown’s roll-back as disingenuous and duplicitious.
Mr Luxon is unrepentant.
“All we’re doing is reverting this decision back to what it was in 2011, when the parliament passed a legislation around it balancing the interests of rtrecognising ther legal entitlement through customary rights of Māori but also protecting legitimate interests of all New Zealanders. As you know the courts took that on and ended up lowering the threshold. That was not the intention of parliament. I’m proud of that 2011 legislation introduced by a National-led government and all we’re doing is bringing it back to that position,” he says.
