“Last year ACT warned that rewarding protestors at Ihumātao with taxpayer money would promote further squatting. We just didn’t think it would happen as quickly as it is in Shelly Bay” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“The prosperity of all New Zealanders rests on a system of property rights that is in turn supported by due process and the rule of law. If you’re in a dispute and see the Prime Minister approaching, you’d hope she was coming to uphold that system.

"At Ihumātao, the Prime Minister flashed the dangerous side of kindness and undermined the system of property rights that every New Zealander depends on.

“At Shelly Bay the protestors, no doubt emboldened by the Prime Minister's actions at Ihumātao, are now having a bob each way. They’ve done the proper thing and taken their grievance over the original sale of the land to the courts, as is the right of every New Zealander, but they’re also trying occupation as plan B.

“Rather than respect the eventual outcome of the court process, they’re occupying private land, and why wouldn’t they? This Government has given every reason to believe it will buy the land and triumphantly claim it avoided this generation’s Bastion Point, as Grant Robertson did in respect of Ihumātao.

“The Government must make it crystal clear that if it is to intervene at Shelly Bay, it will be to uphold property rights based on due process and the rule of law, not to undermine them.

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