The Maori Council's lawyer, Felix Geiringer, was once so determined to slow down a National Government that he lay his body down on the road in front of Bill Birch's ministerial car. Bill Birch drove right over top of the protesting student. That was 1991, shortly after National's 'Mother of all Budgets' and just prior to the introduction of the Employment Contracts Act. Now in 2012, Geiringer and the Maori Council are proving to be an even bigger bump in the road. And a collision seems unavoidable. The question is 'who will collide with who'?
National has raised the stakes on the water rights dispute by demanding that the Waitangi Tribunal speed up its processes, warning that the Government might forge ahead with the sale of Mighty River shares regardless of whether it has received the Tribunal report - see Adam Bennett and Claire Trevett's We're not waiting, Govt tells tribunal. Felix Geiringer is reported as - rather diplomatically - saying that this is 'a concerning development'. See also, Radio NZ's Maori Council shocked at Govt hurry-up on water, in which the Maori Council is labeling the Government's demand as no different to a 'contempt of court'.
Council chairman Maanu Paul has stronger words: 'This amounts to bullying on the Government's part' - see Kate Chapman's Maori Council makes bullying claim after water threat. Chapman says that 'It appears the Government has decided not to let the Maori water rights issue get in the way of asset sales, especially on the basis of what it sees as an opportunist claim. It has also expressed concern that a delay in Mighty River Power's share float could have knock-on effects on other state-owned assets it plans to sell'.
National's surprise move has been well received by rightwing commentator Stephen Franks, who says he's 'heartened' by the Government's more assertive tactics - see Hamish Rutherford's Ex-MP backs new deadline for tribunal. Franks is quoted as saying: 'It looks as if it's a tactic in a game that so far the Crown hasn't been playing strong hands in, telling the other side that they're not cowed by it, and they'll allow the appropriate process to happen but they won't necessarily change course'. Although Franks also raises the possibility of the Government pulling the plug on the whole privatisation programme, he says the Government's latest missive was more about a message that 'we won't allow the timetable to drive the outcome, and if you think you can push it out until we get desperate, then that's not going to work'.
So the impending collision appears to involve the National Government, the Waitangi Tribunal, the Maori Party, and the Maori Council. The latter has clearly taken on a stronger political life lately. Original set up by a previous National Government, the Maori Council was once seen as being National-friendly. Ironically it has become the biggest thorn in the Government's side. Partly, perhaps, this is because it's becoming a proxy for the Maori Party - or at least the radical/legalistic extra-parliamentary wing of the party. It's notable that former Maori Party MP, Rahui Katene, has recently become the deputy chair of the Council. And on Monday, the Council will meet with the Maori Party in Wellington prior to Pita Sharples and Tariana Turia meeting with John Key. Yesterday David Farrar essentially enunciated the Government's current thinking on the issue - see: Will the Government delay?. The Maori Party would be wise to read it.
