David Farrar: Yes the foreshore and seabed were in public ownership

A number of people have claimed that the Hobson’s Pledge advertisement should have been rejected because it calls for the foreshore and seabed to be restored to public ownership. They say it it misleading as they argue it has never been in public ownership.

I don’t see how you can dispute that it used to be in public ownership, because this was set out in statute under the Foreshore and Seabed Act that was passed by the Helen Clark Government in 2004. I quote from it:

The Act gives effect to the object stated in section 3 by vesting the full legal and beneficial ownership of the public foreshore and seabed in the Crown.

We live a democracy with parliamentary supremacy. Parliament in 2004 passed a law vesting the foreshore and seabed in public (crown) ownership. Now you might, like me, think it was a bad law because it undermined property rights of Iwi and hapus, but it was the law of the land.

In 2011 the John Key Government passed the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 which repealed the Helen Clark Act and instead stated:

Neither the Crown nor any other person owns, or is capable of owning, the common marine and coastal area, as in existence from time to time after the commencement of this Act.

So from 2004 to 2011 it was beyond dispute that the foreshore and seabed was in public ownership.

Hobson’s Pledge has a belief that the 2004 Helen Clark law was superior to the 2011 John Key/Chris Finlayson law. I disagree with them, but it is preposterous that their support of the Helen Clark law should be deemed something so abhorrent that media won’t even accept an advertisement allowing them to advocate for a return to the Helen Clark law.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.