Foreshore Legislation Hardens Iwi Opposition.

The proposed government legislation on the foreshore and seabed has strengthened the opposition of one of the country’s largest iwi. A spokesperson for Ngati Kahungunu, Dr. Pita Sharples, has said that the detail in the legislation merely confirms the Iwi’s worst fears about the proposed confiscation of the foreshore and seabed.

“For some time now Ngati Kahungunu has been planning a hikoi to Parliament on May 5 to object to the proposals of the government and most other political parties. This legislation merely hardens our resolve to be there on that day to express our opposition in the strongest possible way”.

Doctor Sharples noted that the legislation extinguishes rights long protected in both the Treaty of Waitangi and the common law and replaces it with a newly invented set of “customary territorial rights” that are effectively meaningless. The legislation has unfortunate similarities with 19th century confiscation laws and is equally unjust.

“Ngati Kahungunu has one of the longest Iwi coastlines in the country and the hikoi is just one of several actions being planned to voice our opposition,” he said. “We have been heartened by the support from other Iwi and Maori organisations and see it as one way of our people expressing the grassroots and widespread opposition to what the government is doing”.

Dr. Sharples also stated that although a hikoi was a new venture for Ngati Kahungunu it illustrated the depth of concern felt by the Iwi and other Maori. “We are determined to follow through on the hikoi and are pursuing various other national and international strategies”.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>