Labour's Maori MPs disagree over bill's effects

By AUDREY YOUNG and RUTH BERRY

The Labour Maori caucus is divided over the Government's proposals on ownership of the foreshore and seabed. Tariana Turia hints that she might not be able to live with it politically and John Tamihere says it strengthens iwi rights.

Mrs Turia said under the banner of the Labour Maori caucus (though not all Maori MPs endorsed her): "Any attempt to extinguish customary ownership of the foreshore and seabed will create huge conflict for tangata whenua."

The Government is proposing to pass laws to say that no one owns the foreshore and that public access is guaranteed.

It will also prevent the possibility of any Maori customary title in the foreshore being converted to private ownership, and set up a new branch of the Maori Land Court to hear claims for customary useage rights over particular areas.

After the plans were unveiled yesterday, Mrs Turia said that the "issue of title and ownership were missing from the document".

Asked if she could be part of a Government that adopted that position, she said: "Well, that remains to be seen. I think it's going to be difficult for all of us that are Maori members.

"We'll be listening very carefully to what our constituency says over the next five weeks and that will be the position that we take," said Mrs Turia, the MP for Te Tai Hauauru.

Mrs Turia was backed by Tainui MP Nanaia Mahuta.

She said the issue of ownership would be at the core of the debate Maori had in the next six weeks.

the perception of Maori would be that the Government planned to extinguish any claim to Maori customary title, she said.

Nanaia Mahuta, Mrs Turia and most other Maori Labour MPs attended a caucus meeting yesterday morning with interested Maori parties at which parts of a draft caucus statement were read.

But Mr Tamihere said that in the company of other groups in the room, it had not been possible for the caucus to have a discussion about it.

He believed the statement was "subsumed" by the Government's proposals.

And he believed the proposed new arm of the Maori Land Court giving Maori the opportunity to explore the extent of their customary right would strengthen Maori's position.

"When that right is explored it might be shown that a lot of it has been extinguished and that bumps them to the Waitangi Tribunal for a claim."