Two things - Major news came through yesterday regarding Customary Marine Titles and I have shared Janet Dickson's written submissions for you to take a look at should you wish.

SAVE OUR SHORES - MARINE AND COASTAL AREA ACT

At the beginning of the week, I sent you information about our campaign to save New Zealand's shores (see below in case you missed it). At the heart of the issue is the legislation that replaced the Foreshore and Seabed legislation of Helen Clark's Government: the Marine and Coastal Area Act (MACA).

Just TWO days after we launched this fight, the Government announced their intention to make changes to the MACA legislation!

We allowed ourselves a moment of celebrating before we had a proper look at what the Government plans to do.

In accordance with the New Zealand First coalition agreement, the Government intends to pass legislation to "overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament's test for Customary Marine Title".

Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says:

"All New Zealanders have an interest in the coastal waters of our country...

...the Government has agreed to propose legislation which will ensure these tests for applications directly with the Crown or through the Courts are upheld as originally intended.

These measures include:

• Inserting a declaratory statement that overturns the reasoning of the Court of Appeal and High Court in Re Edwards, and the reasoning of all High Court decisions since the High Court in Re Edwards, where they relate to the test for CMT.

• Adding text to section 58 to define and clarify the terms ‘exclusive use and occupation’ and ‘substantial interruption’.

• Amending the ‘burden of proof’ section of the Act (section 106) to clarify that applicant groups are required to prove exclusive use and occupation from 1840 to the present day.

• Making clearer the relationship between the framing sections of the Act (the preamble, purpose, and Treaty of Waitangi sections) and section 58 in a way that allows section 58 to operate more in line with its literal wording.

Cabinet also agreed that the amended section 58 test should be applied from today’s date, if enacted. This will be reflected in the proposed legislation. This means existing CMT decisions will continue to be recognised." 

This is a big win! If MACA is returned to its original intent very few Customary Marine Titles will be awarded. 

The Government is working on the Bill now and we will reserve our final judgment until we have seen it all in writing. 

However, we are left with one big question: is this enough?

Does this legislative action restore public ownership to most of our coast? 

We want to hear from our supporters. Is this a big enough step in the direction we want things to go? 

Either way, we still have a big part to play. If we need to push the Government harder, we will. But we also need to get behind them in getting this legislation through. 

The media and Opposition will not like this one bit. Just as with Māori wards and removing section 7aa from the Oranga Tamariki Act, they will run a campaign of distortion and dramatics.

New Zealanders need to understand what is really going on and why it isn't racist to amend the MACA.

The media will try to paint a picture of mass opposition to the Government on this. We need to provide proof to the contrary. We were already planning social media, print newspaper ads, and other attention-grabbing tactics. We will go ahead with these.

Basically, we are in for a fight either way. The message just changes slightly depending on our direction. 

What are your thoughts? You can reply to this email or head to our Facebook page to join the discussion.

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JANET DICKSON V REAL ESTATE AUTHORITY UPDATE

We sent an update to everyone who donated to Janet's case a little while ago, but we have received a few requests from other supporters for an update too so here we go!

First, Janet wants to express her heartfelt thanks to everyone who has supported her in any way thus far.

Janet has had her day in court where her lawyers argued that the Real Estate Authority did not follow proper processes for approving the rules they used to make Te Kākano mandatory, that the course is not relevant to real estate agents' practice, and that this was an unjustified breach of Janet’s freedom of expression.

>>> YOU CAN ACCESS HER FULL WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS HERE <<<

We now await the decision from the Judge, and there is a lot at stake. Janet is at risk of losing her real estate licence for five years if the REA is allowed to continue imposing controversial courses like this.

Unfortunately, our courts are under immense pressure so while the expected timeframe for hearing back should be 90 days, it is likely to be longer. We will keep you posted, but we've been told to expect a wait

We will update you as soon as we hear back from the court.

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Those are our two updates. We will be in touch again soon once we have established what Hobson's Pledge supporters are thinking regarding the proposed amendments to MACA.