The government had essentially five choices how to deal with the foreshore & seabed around New Zealand. It could be, in ascending order of superiority:
- Government-owned in perpetuity, i.e., nationalised
- Unowned in perpetuity, i.e., collectivised
- Iwi owned in perpetuity, i.e., tribalised
- Iwi-owned until sold, i.e., privatised by fiat
- Unowned until or unless right to title is established in court, i.e., privatised by right
It appears that today’s agreement moves it from being nationalised to being collectivised, i.e., from the lowest rung of hell to the second-lowest.
One cheer please, for that.
Half a cheer is all I can muster as I sit and contemplate how much of my meagre wealth will be redistributed to funding those Iwi that wish to pursue some foreshore usury.:-(
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