Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) (Customary Marine Title) Amendment Bill
This bill tightens the rules for Māori groups trying to get official recognition of customary marine title — that is, a legal acknowledgement that a hapū or iwi has a traditional connection to a stretch of coastline or seabed. It sets stricter tests that a group must pass, requires evidence to be based on physical activities rather than spiritual connections alone, and overrides some court decisions that Parliament says made the test too easy. It also cancels some approvals made during a specific window of time.
What this affects
Tap a topic to see how this bill touches it — with the parts of the text it’s based on.
The bill makes it harder for Māori groups to get legal recognition of their traditional coastal rights, and cancels some approvals that were granted under looser rules during a specific period.
exclusive use and occupation of a specified area … only if the group or its members had both the intention and the ability to control the area, to the exclusion of others, from the start to the end of the applicable period without substantial interruption
no inference may be drawn about all or any of the geographic scope, continuity, or exclusivity of a group's use and occupation … unless that inference … is based on evidence of a physical activity, or of a use, related to natural and physical resources
A CMT decision must be taken to have no legal effect, and never to have had legal effect, if it was made … in the interim period … in accordance with the old law
This section prevails over … section 7 (Treaty of Waitangi (te Tiriti o Waitangi))
Progress through Parliament
Have your say
Submissions open once a bill reaches the select committee stage. In the meantime, you can write to your local MP about it.
Write to your MPBill text sourced from legislation.govt.nz (Parliamentary Counsel Office). Arapono’s summary and breakdown are drafted with AI grounded in that official text and reviewed by an Arapono editor for accuracy and neutrality before publishing. Arapono is non-partisan and takes no position on this bill.