Arguments over the allocation of fisheries assets were "a disgrace" for Maori, former cabinet minister Sir Peter Tapsell said.
Sir Peter, MP for Eastern Maori from 1981 to 1996, said previous and current governments should have stepped in to resolve the issue before it was taken to the Privy Council.
He said
the outcome had fostered a thrust towards tribalism which was a mistake.
Sir Peter, Speaker of the House from 1993-6 and a minister of internal affairs and police during the 1984-90 Labour government, said a lack of Maori leadership at a government level meant the fisheries issue had simply "drifted" from year to year, which had been "a disgrace".
The London-based Privy Council, New Zealand's ultimate legal appeal body, last week dismissed an appeal by the Manukau Urban Maori Authority, which argued urban Maori should be considered iwi when fisheries assets held by the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission are allocated.
The assets are now worth an estimated $850 million
The commission was set up in 1992 as part of a settlement of Maori treaty claims over the nation's fisheries.
It was charged with finding a method of allocating the assets to Maori. Litigation, which is estimated to have cost Maori about $1 million a month, has held the process up for nine years.
"The assets were to go to all Maori. But unfortunately the Act was not clear because it used the word iwi. But that was supposed to mean all Maori," Sir Peter said.
The current system was not working, he said, and a new approach was needed.
He said two commissions should be set up. The first would look after the assets and be run as a business venture .
The second would have the job of allocating the benefits derived from the assets to all Maori.
"The money should promote education, training and buy shares in major corporations. It shouldn't be handed out as cash because it would be wasted."
Sir Peter said the fisheries dispute had separated Maori into tribal groups.
"It has fostered a whole thrust of tribalism and that is a mistake. Over the years tribalism has grown. First there were seven or eight (tribal groups), now there are about 50."
- DAILY POST (ROTORUA)
