Iwi Leaders To UN: Marine And Coastal Areas Amendment Bill Is An Act Of Environmental Racism – PAPARA

The Maranga Mai Working Group on The People’s Action Plan Against Racism (PAPARA) has today released a United Nations shadow report which condemns the Government’s Marine and Coastal Areas Amendment Bill as a blatant act of environmental racism and a continuation of colonial dispossession of Māori from their takutai moana.

The report states that the Bill “constitutes a major act of raupatu (territorial confiscation), and continues a long history of the Crown government legislating over the top of established court findings which were protective of Māori property rights and treaty obligations”. It further outlines how the bill contravenes New Zealand’s binding obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).

“This Bill revives the same colonial logic that drove the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004: that Māori rights to land and sea can and will be legislated away when politically inconvenient” said lead advisor on the Action Plan, Tina Ngata.

The report, and review will be central to international scrutiny of the Government’s compliance with human rights and environmental justice obligations.

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has repeatedly condemned New Zealand’s approach to the foreshore and seabed. In its 2005, 2007, and 2017 concluding observations, the United Nations Committee found that the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004 — and its replacement, the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 — breached Articles 2, 5, and 6 of the Convention by discriminating against Māori property rights and denying effective remedies.

“Instead of honouring the United Nations recommendations, the Government is doubling down on the same racist frameworks that CERD warned about nearly two decades ago,” said Ngata. “This heralds a further slide into international disrepute for New Zealand under the current government”.

The Maranga Mai Working group fully supports the recent statement of the National Iwi Chairs Forum, which reaffirms that Māori retain full authority and tino rangatiratanga over their takutai moana:

“The Crown has no authority to define, regulate or determine the customary rights of Māori in relation to the takutai moana,” said Iwi Chairs Forum spokesperson Aperahama Edwards, calling for the Government to cease all attempts to legislate over Māori territories and to uphold the tino rangatiratanga guaranteed under He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

The Forum’s co-chair Professor Margaret Mutu further warned that Māori “will ignore any limits [the Government] put on our rights to our takutai moana” and “carry out a deliberate programme of disruption to demonstrate our resistance to the Government’s criminal behaviour.”