Bill Clinton famously tried to redefine some of the English language to explain away previous denials of his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Political definitions can be quite elastic and so it may be with a few key words in John Key's assurance to the Maori Party - 'ownership', 'rights and interests' and even 'not'. More questions are raised than settled by the joint statement, writes Audrey Young: 'Unless the Maori Party and the Government agree on what ownership means, its concession in the joint statement is meaningless' - see: Water ownership remains ill defined. Young also makes the point that what works as a soundbite has little bearing on the real decisions that will dictate the final outcome: 'whatever agreements they reach, they have no control over other Maori to claim ownership rights over specific waters and have the courts uphold them'.
It seems that 'not' legislating over the 'interests and rights' of Maori in water actually comes with a big qualification - unless the courts rule that Maori have 'ownership' or rights that are too much like ownership for National's comfort. Key acknowledged that the assurance of 'no legislation' was more of a preference than an absolute: 'In theory, but one would hope it wouldn't come to that'; 'At the end of the day that's not the preferred option' - cited in Adam Bennett's Calls to clarify how far pledge goes.
While the Prime Minister was trying to draw a clear line between 'ownership' and 'interests', Keiran Raftery, one of the Crown lawyers at the tribunal hearing, seemed to be arguing his client wasn't helping: '"The word ownership is a distraction from the proceedings. Being fixated by this term is not helping." The concept of ownership had caused difficulty in the community and politically, he said' - see: Kate Chapman's Water 'ownership' not the issue.
The Maori Council's final submission made their view very clear with lawyer Felix Geiringer saying 'the Maori relationship with water was such that if water was land, the courts would not hesitate to recognise it as an ownership title' - see Claire Trevett's Tribunal urged to rule Maori have full rights.
With the Tribunal hearings winding up, the inevitable move to the courts is already underway with claims of rights, and possibly 70 years back-rent, over three Mighty River Power dams by the people of Pouakani, who recently won the right to make a claim for the riverbed - see Jonathan Carson's Maori seek injunction on Mighty River sale.