New Zealand has found a new way to end a bitter dispute over the ownership of the country’s beaches and shores — by declaring that nobody owns them, but everyone can use them.
Attorney-General Chris Finlayson said yesterday the government will propose legislation to end the dispute over whether the country’s 18,700km coast belongs to the country’s indigenous Maori minority or the entire population.
The move is aimed at replacing a contentious law that nationalized the seabed and shoreline in 2004.
“The government proposes that, instead of identifying an owner of the foreshore and seabed, new legislation would provide that no one owns, or can own, the foreshore and seabed. This area would be called a public domain,” Finlayson said.
The 2004 law overrode customary rights to the land that the Maori have had as its original settlers, sparking outrage among tribes. A government review last year found the law was unfair because it expunged property rights of Maori tribes exercised for more than 1,000 years.
In 2006, the UN called for the law to be repealed or amended so that Maori rights could be restored.
If enacted, the new law would restore the right of Maori to go to court to establish traditional ownership, but would stop short of recognizing legal ownership.
It would allow both public access to the shoreline as well as recognition of Maori customary rights to engage in such activities as gathering seafood, collecting rocks for Maori pit cooking and caring for sacred tribal coastal burial sites, known as waahi tapu.
“I think it’s a truly indigenous New Zealand answer,” Finlayson said.
The Maori contend that the 2004 law that nationalized the shoreline contravened an 1840 treaty that made them citizens under British rule and guaranteed their land, fisheries, culture and language rights.
More than 20,000 indigenous protesters marched on Parliament to denounce the law.
Maori make up 530,000 of New Zealand’s 4.3 million people and are among its most impoverished citizens.
Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia said the party would consult widely before deciding whether to support the proposal, which needs parliamentary approval.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese