Tribal ownership of the country's foreshore and seabed, including non-nationalised minerals such as iron sand, titanium and rare earths worth ‘trillions', is one of the instigators for a citizen-initiated referendum protesting against the Marine and Coastal Area Act 2011.

Muriel Newman, left, from the Coastal Coalition meets with concerned Whangarei residents Lillian Ratcliff and Marian and George Barclay.

Charging tourist operators to use the coast, enabling tribal groups to run commercial ventures in the area and veto other users and allowing government ministers to settle iwi claims through secret negotiations rather than having claims tested in the High Court, are some of the other issues the Coastal Coalition Group wants scrutinised.

The group was formed in 2010 specifically to lead the fight against the law change and is seeking 320,000 signatures by the end of June to force a nationwide referendum.

It wants to send a strong message to the government that New Zealanders want the coastline to remain in the hands of all citizens and not be privatised to the ‘tribal elite'.

The Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act was passed in March last year and repealed the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004.

Former Act MP of nine years and New Zealand Centre for Political Research founder-director Dr Muriel Newman says her 'red alert button”' about the act's implications was pushed the moment the government announced its public review just before Easter in 2010.

'When someone has been in Parliament or the media a long time they know that when something is released just before a public holiday or some major event then it's usually something they don't really want the public to know about.”

She says the 2010 foreshore and seabed review was a hugely complex document with only 14-16 working days for submissions.

The public was 'dead against the Bill”, but Muriel says it still worked its way through Parliament as the rest of the country grappled with disasters such as Pike River and the Christchurch earthquakes.

She says the new act replaces the public's ownership right to the foreshore and seabed with three levels of Maori rights.

'I can't stand around and do nothing while the beaches and sea, areas that should belong to all New Zealanders, are claimed by ‘corporate iwi'.”

Copies of the ‘Petition for a Citizens Initiated Referendum: Should the Marine and Coastal Area (Tukutai Moana) Act 2011 by replaced by legislation that restores Crown ownership of the foreshore and seabed?' petition form can be found at www.CoastalCoalition.co.nz