Time is short! Submissions on the Marine and Coastal Area Amendment Bill (MACA) are now open, but not for long.

SUBMISSIONS CLOSE AT MIDNIGHT ON 15 OCTOBER

Making things even more challenging is the fact that the Justice Committee is doing its best to prevent your submission. They will not accept email submissions and are saying that everyone has to use their webform. This would prevent you from being able to use our easy tool.

We create these tools because of how onerous it can be to use the Parliamentary process. We provide the points that we think are important and you can pick and choose those that you agree with as well as enter your own text. 

We are facilitating more New Zealanders to have their say.

It is almost like the Justice Committee doesn't want submissions on the Bill. They certainly want to place roadblocks in the way.

We offered to provide them with one file containing all submissions but they said that was too much of an administrative burden. Our alternative is simply to collect all of the submissions and then print every single one... I suspect that will be more of an administrative burden for the select committee staff.

And won't someone think of the trees!

We will get your submissions in to the Justice Committee. Leave that with us. You just need to head to our website and put together your submission in a few short minutes.

This is important. Every submission counts. We have made the process simple and quick for you so please head to our submission tool and have your say.

We encourage you to support the passing of the Bill but there are some significant improvements that the Justice Committee needs to be urged to implement.

It is good news that the Government intends to return the law back to the original 2011 intention, but we are still wanting more – first and foremost that the Crown resumes ownership of all foreshore and seabed for all New Zealanders as it did under the Foreshore and Seabed Act in 2004.

We’ve analysed the bill for you, and got some legal advice too. There are a lot of good aspects to it. For example, the Government is reigning in the increasingly activist courts, returning the law back to what Parliament intended in 2011. Criteria are being tightened up with iwi needing to prove exclusive and ongoing use since 1840.

But there are some problems too. Chief among those is the fact that for those who are successful in their claims there are substantial special rights awarded. These include the ability to apply wāhi tapu (sacred areas) and rahui (bans); veto over most resource consents and conservation activities; involvement in coastal planning and policy development; the ability to charge commercial operators; the ability to restrict public access through wāhi tapu; and ownership rights to all non-nationalised minerals – including royalties from existing mining operations, back-dated to when the application was first submitted.

You can dress up customary titles however you want, but it is still a type of ownership and other than ‘a promise we won’t’, there is little to stop iwi exercising considerable control.

Like all of the matters we tackle, equality is at the heart of how we view this bill. This is about equal ownership rights, equal access to beaches, equal and fair processes for resource consents and planning. 

New Zealanders who care about the future of our country must speak up now. It is now or never. If this Government doesn't succeed in putting us on a pathway to a future where who one's ancestors were has no relevance to what our political rights are today, there may never be another opportunity to achieve that goal. Submitting on bills like this is a key way you can do your bit to fight for this future. 

Make sure to add your own thoughts to the submission and emphasise that New Zealand is big trouble if we continue along the route Jacinda Ardern and the Labour Māori Caucus charted. We need to course correct and head towards equality of citizenry.

Do pass this email or the link to our submission tool on to any New Zealanders who share our vision of New Zealand where we are all treated equally under the law. The more voices heard the better.

Don't forget that the submission period is woefully short so you only have until the 15th of October to have your say. It only takes a few minutes so why not do your submission now?     

Thank you for your ongoing support and please submit today!