WAATEA NEWS COLUMN: Marine and Coastal Area Act another attack on Aotearoa’s collective mana

Last week during the latest Marine and Coastal Area Act abuse of power, Ngāti Wai chairperson Aperahama Edwards called out “ko wai hoki koutou?” (who are you/ what authority do you have?).

It’s a great question.

In August of last year, Paul Goldsmith and Shane Jones were caught out privately boasting to the Seafood Industry that they would ensure Māori Customary Fishing rights were only 5% of the coastline.

Shortly after making that boast in private, the Government pushed ahead with the new Marine and coastal Area Act that sought to do exactly what Goldsmith and Jones had priorly assured the Seafood Industry.

Former Attorney General, Chis Finlayson was scathing of this sudden reversal in an RNZ interview…

“These amendments do not restore the original intention of Parliament. They undermine them. Let there be no doubt about that at all […] What they are doing by these foolish amendments is destroying the settlement that the National Party and the Māori Party reached in 2010. […] Tangata whenua have a few wins in court, and it’s ripped away from them by the government, which changes goal posts 15 years later. I am very, very saddened by what they have done, and I think it’s a very bad day for race relations in New Zealand. I just can’t believe that they’re as foolish as they appear to be.”

…as the architect of the original MACA legislation, those words are damning.

So, Ngāti Wai chairperson Aperahama Edwards’ demand to know what authority this hard right government has to suddenly undermine Māori interests in this manner are extremely relevant and pertinent, especially when you consider that NZ First and National take donations from the Seafood Industry that they were privately assuring.

For asking that question, Ngāti Wai chairperson Aperahama Edwards was escorted from the hearing.

It looks like the common good is being strangled off for this Governments donors interests.

This is an affront to our collective mana as New Zealanders, this is not how you work with a Treaty partner.