Accusations over seabed bill "parliamentary noise''

Accusations the Government is trying to ram through seabed and foreshore legislation have been dismissed as ``parliamentary noise'' by Attorney-General Chris Finlayson.
After receiving nearly 6000 submissions on the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill, most of them opposing it, the Maori affairs select committee yesterday decided on a majority vote to send the bill back to Parliament with no changes and a recommendation that it be passed into law without amendment.
The committee had until February 25 to report the bill back and surprised Parliament yesterday when it suddenly announced its decision.
Labour, Act and the Greens, who all oppose the bill, criticised the move, saying the Government was trying to rush through the legislation.
``This is desperation by the Government, they want to ram this through before the Maori Party implodes, but it's poor process,'' Labour leader Phil Goff.
``This has been an absolute disgrace in terms of democratic process. They will not even provide the legal advice given to government to say what this bill actually means.''
However, Mr Finlayson, who is in charge of the bill, said he was comfortable with the consideration given to the bill and that the opposition parties' accusations were just ``parliamentary noise''.
``One has to get beyond the political rhetoric and focus pretty coldly and toughly on the principles involved in this legislation and we'll have a debate,'' he told Radio New Zealand.
``I'm very comfortable that when one looks at the history of consultation on this matter, we started on the matter in November 2008, the review panel reported in June 2009, the legislation was introduced at five months before the select committee -- people talk about the desirability of long conversations, this would be one of the longest conversations of this Parliament.''
The bill will repeal the Foreshore and Seabed Act and replace it with legislation which restores the right of Maori to seek customary title to parts of the coastline either through the courts or through negotiation with the Government.
The most contentious part of it is the test for customary title -- continuous use and occupation since 1840.
Maori critics say the bar is much too high and will rule out most applications for customary title.