Clark sidesteps talk about Crown ownership of seabed

By RUTH BERRY political reporter

Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday refused to say whether the Government will assert Crown ownership of the foreshore and seabed in law as it earlier said it would.

Heated debate on the Maori claim to the foreshore and seabed continued yesterday, and the Government committee on the issue is holding its third meeting today.

While it appears to have a skeletal plan to resolve the matter, impassioned negotiations are going on about the details.

The Cabinet met yesterday for the first time since two national hui on the subject.

Helen Clark said public access to the areas and Maori customary rights would both be protected.

The National Party intends to push the subject hard in Parliament.

Leader Bill English yesterday accused the Government of backing down, and challenged Helen Clark to say whether the Government still intended to assert Crown ownership of the foreshore and seabed.

He said it was the only way public access could be guaranteed and Pakeha fears allayed.

Attorney-General Margaret Wilson said a month ago that the Government was going to "clarify that the foreshore and seabed is owned by all New Zealanders in the form of the Crown".

That angered Maori, and the Government has since avoided talking about "ownership", referring to the protection of rights instead.

Helen Clark yesterday refused to say if the Government would assert ownership through legislation.

"I don't want to be any more specific about a resolution except to say that it is entirely possible to reconcile two sets of interests," she said.

The Government would take "as much time as is needed" to sort out what was a highly complex issue.

Any decision by the committee will then have to be endorsed by the Labour caucus, which is sensitive about a public backlash.

Officials from various Government agencies are involved in working out how legislation can be developed which defines and protects customary rights but does not take away other rights.

A framework to begin formal negotiations with Maori is to be established in the next few weeks, but how detailed it will be is unclear.

Also uncertain is how long and difficult those negotiations will be.

Deciding who will negotiate for Maori is a problem already causing tensions in Maoridom.

In another sign that the process could be dragged out, a spokesman for Fisheries Minister Pete Hodgson refused to rule out the possibility that the moratorium on new marine farming tenders may be extended.

The Government had hoped to introduce legislation next month so it would be passed by the time the moratorium expired in March.

While it was still Mr Hodgson's intention to meet that deadline, the matter was tangled into the foreshore issue, the spokesman said.

Ms Wilson and other ministers have hinted for some time that a solution to the ownership issue could involve creating laws acknowledging some type of customary interest, which could be akin to ownership, in foreshore and seabed while protecting public access.

One Government insider said Tuwharetoa's 1992 settlement granting it freehold title to Lake Taupo, which it co-manages with the Crown, was being explored as a possible answer in areas where hapu or iwi could prove strong customary rights to the foreshore and seabed.

Tuwharetoa guaranteed the public access for recreational use, but shares the revenue from trout fishing licences with the Crown.