Turei Metiria: General Debate 
Turei Metiria: General Debate 
[Volume:629;Page:1817] 
METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
: 
 There is a growing drive in this country to privatise our coastlines and our marine areas. The Whangamata debate is a typical example of that drive to privatise and of the very queer hysteria that arises when public space is protected for public use. 
Whangamata is a beautiful area and one of the most popular beaches in New Zealand. It has safe swimming great surf and fabulous fishing. It is a wonderful example of the crucial interplay of wetlands and coastal areas. In the estuaries there are vital seagrass beds that act as a critical fish nursery. The shellfish beds are important as a food source for the hapu and the whole community. The estuary is the only one in the whole Coromandel Peninsula that is entirely free from invasive species. It is an area of special significance that is highly valued by the mana whenua the local community and everyone who goes there. 
But much of the wetland and the saltmarsh in the area have already been lost to growth and development. There is increasing degradation of the estuaries and the necessary functions they fulfil for the marine ecology in that area. Sediment build-up the churning up of the seagrass beds by motor boats and dredging of the shellfish beds will destroy that area forever. Now because of the Minister of Conservation’s decision that area has been kept safe for everyone to use as a food basket as a safe place for the family to holiday as a national resource and as a national treasure. Yet we face this strangely hysterical response from those who want to privatise it. With Nick Smith leading the hysteria there is a backlash against the protection of public access to the foreshore and seabed. 
We must return to the whole foreshore and seabed debate of just a few years ago when the issue of whether collective shared Maori customary rights—not private personal individual rights but customary collective rights—should be upheld was attacked by the rhetoric of the public interest. Both Labour and National used rights of access the notion of the New Zealand way of life with picnics and swimming as reasons to keep hapu and iwi from having any tikanga interests in coastal areas. 
National’s Nick Smith was especially vocal about those public rights. “The beach is the core to being a New Zealander.” he said. “It is our right to grab the picnic bag or the barbecue and go to the beach.” he said. Yet on this issue of Whangamata he staunchly defends the private rights of some to acquire public property and to restrict public access. Nick Smith wants to take from everyone so that just a few can have what is now—already—still everyone’s. We must choose to reject the hysterical and extremist pursuit of development at any cost that is being defended by National. We can have a process for growth and development of our areas and of our economy that does not steal from the public and that does not destroy our environmental values. We must stop the private capture of public space. 
For that the Greens appreciate the Minister of Conservation’s position. The Opposition has been especially critical of Minister Carter and has also been talking about former Minister Sandra Lee’s decision to refer a similar matter back to the Environment Court. But National is not telling New Zealanders that the Minister is legally prevented from referring this matter back to the court. The legal circumstances of this case are very different from those of that earlier case. Nick Smith is failing to tell everyone that because it does not fit his support of development and growth above all else. It is a terrible shame to see this kind of failure to understand the extent to which New Zealanders value the public access the public entitlement the coastal environment and our way of life by a party that supposedly defends it. In fact its members right now in their public defence of the private rights of some are advocating the theft of public space. We are very pleased they have failed in that cause and we call on New Zealanders to remind National and others that it is indeed a right of the public to have access to our environment.