Barry Soper: Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent on the Supreme Court's latest ruling in foreshore and seabed legal saga

The Supreme Court has ruled the majority of the Court of Appeal “erred” in a major decision that ultimately eased the test for Māori to gain customary rights for use of the foreshore and seabed.

Its just-issued ruling allows an appeal by the Attorney-General against the Court of Appeal’s decision last October, at a time the Government is pushing through contentious legislation to overturn it.

Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper unpacks these new developments.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And news talks. He'd be senior political correspondent. Barry Sopa
is here with us this afternoon. Killers.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Good afternoon, Jack.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
So the Supreme Court with a significant decision this afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's actually quite significant and there will be a lot
of upset, I would imagine, certainly in Marridom for a start,
because the Court of Appeal judgment last year, that was
in October last year, they eased the test for Maldi
to gain customly titled the Foreshawn Sea. But it goes

(00:29):
back twenty years as to Helen Clark's government. The ruling
allowed by the Appeal there was an appeal by the
Attorney General that today has been upheld by the Supreme Court.
What they've done is when this government it basically wanted
to restore what was intended in the Foreshawn Sea Bed Act,

(00:52):
and that was to ensure that they had exclusive rights
if they had uninterrupted access to various parts of the
foreshore on the seabed. But two Court of Appeal judges
decided that bar was too high. That was the October ruling.
They ruled it was inconsistent with the Treaty of White Tonguey.

(01:14):
Now that gets down to the argument, I guess between
who is the supreme court in this country, is at
Parliament or is it the courts? Well, the Court of
Appeal have made it quite clear today. These two Court
of Appeal judges who basically decided that the bar was
too high in this earlier legislation, they've been overruled. Now.

(01:36):
The two judges basically were Justice David Goddard who was
appointed five years ago, and Justice Mark Cooper, the former
President of the Court of Appeal he retired just a
few weeks ago. Interestingly, And the judge who dissented there
was one judge and the three judge decision who dissented

(01:58):
on the decision, that was Justice Forrest Miller. Well where's he.
He's now on the Supreme Court which made this ruling today,
and he was one of Judith Collins as the Attorney
general first appointment when she became Attorney General in December
last year. There's been a lot of toing and throwing

(02:21):
in this, but look, really it gets back to the argument,
doesn't it. And I think the Parliament has to be
supreme when it comes to making laws and the laws
to be adhered to, and this to me is a
really classic case of Mauri won't like it, No doubt
there will be a lot of a lot of protest

(02:42):
about it. But and I don't like the Marine and
Coastal Area Act.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
But yeah, yeah, it's interesting. I mean, I mean because
that I suppose that same tension cuts to the heart
of the Treaty principal's debate as well, right who who
should be interpreting the treaty? Should have been? The Court
should be? The should it be the Arliament? Who should be?

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, these are these are interesting kind of constitutionals.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
I think I heard you say yesterday, Jack that David
Seymour got what he wanted. Well, in fact, he did
get He's got a lot what he wanted, and that
was debate on the issue. We're all having it. This
will add to it significantly. So he's got the debate
and it might be voted down. But don't forget he

(03:24):
was the proponent of the euthanasia bill that was voted
down initially, and what have we got today. So you
know that's how legislation goes on many.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
Occasion, marriage and that kind of thing, right, Yeah, Now,
Chris Hopkins made a lot of fair significant promises at
the Labor Party conference over the weekend.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Well, the Danidan Hospital will be very happy. I'm not
sure they will go back to the more than three
billion dollars that they were up for. But he's not
going into orcers while ORCUS has actually basically stalled at
the moment. And if aucas and I saw Andrew Little
this small saying that, Look, it's an easy decision to

(04:04):
say this because it's going nowhere at the moment. But
I'd suggest when Trump gets into office, if it's seen
as being anti China, Trump will rekindle it and it'll
be very much back on the agenda. And I think
it's Chris Sipkins is sort of lost in the fact
that Orcus is about for the Pillar two is about

(04:26):
technology as opposed to nuclear submarines, which is what.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
The end we're not. We're not getting nuclear SUPs, and
I mean we can maintain our nuclear free status while
joining Pillar twos my understanding.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
But the thing that was missed in a speech yesterday
by the media and talking about it, I felt was
that he said before the last election he worked out
ruling with Winston Peters and he hasn't once regretted it.
So what does that say He's going to do it again,
no doubt. He's sort of committed to it here. So
what does it mean His coalition partner presumably will have

(05:01):
to be the Maori Party in this they can pull
off what they did in twenty twenty.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah, the Maori Party and the Greens. Right, Yeah, the
three party coalitional support deal which is from a coalition
of cas an interesting thought. Yeah, okay, hey, thank you
very much, Barry. Right to sEH has always senior political
correspondent Barry Soco. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive,
listen live.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
To news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or
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