Post by Kiwi Frontline on Dec 31, 2018 5:11:15 GMT 12
RETURN THE COAST TO PUBLIC OWNERSHIP
Looking back, New Zealanders were essentially duped by the National Government into believing that the statutory tests in the new law were so onerous that few claims would succeed.
It now appears they were badly misled.
But there is more bad news.
The Attorney General, who most people had thought would oppose the High Court claims in the public interest, recently clarified that this in not his role: “To be clear, the Attorney-General does not consider it is his role to oppose applications in the public interest”.
While he then went on to explain that he will act as an interested party in each claim to ensure that the statutory tests are met, it seems there is no guarantee that the claims will be opposed.
With tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ funding filling the legal war chests of claimants, and without a guarantee that our elected Government will defend the public interest in the coast, there is an increasing chance that even spurious claims will succeed.
Furthermore, while the public may have been reassured by the fact that since all of the claims overlap, they would fail the ‘exclusive’ use and occupation test, this too may have been premature. Claimants are being asked to resolve the boundary issues ‘according to tikanga’, so that by the time their claims progress to a hearing, they will no longer overlap.
As a result, claimants are now busy carving up the coast between themselves ahead of advancing their exclusive use arguments. Many tribal groups believe it is only a matter of time before the coast is theirs......
Read Muriel’s full article here > www.nzcpr.com/return-the-coast-to-public-ownership/#more-27820
November 4, 2018
Looking back, New Zealanders were essentially duped by the National Government into believing that the statutory tests in the new law were so onerous that few claims would succeed.
It now appears they were badly misled.
But there is more bad news.
The Attorney General, who most people had thought would oppose the High Court claims in the public interest, recently clarified that this in not his role: “To be clear, the Attorney-General does not consider it is his role to oppose applications in the public interest”.
While he then went on to explain that he will act as an interested party in each claim to ensure that the statutory tests are met, it seems there is no guarantee that the claims will be opposed.
With tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ funding filling the legal war chests of claimants, and without a guarantee that our elected Government will defend the public interest in the coast, there is an increasing chance that even spurious claims will succeed.
Furthermore, while the public may have been reassured by the fact that since all of the claims overlap, they would fail the ‘exclusive’ use and occupation test, this too may have been premature. Claimants are being asked to resolve the boundary issues ‘according to tikanga’, so that by the time their claims progress to a hearing, they will no longer overlap.
As a result, claimants are now busy carving up the coast between themselves ahead of advancing their exclusive use arguments. Many tribal groups believe it is only a matter of time before the coast is theirs......
Read Muriel’s full article here > www.nzcpr.com/return-the-coast-to-public-ownership/#more-27820
November 4, 2018