Speed of Foreshore Bill raises fears

1.00pm

Opposition parties say the Government's plan to put Parliament into urgency for the Foreshore and Seabed bill could lead to mistakes being made in the legislation.

The bill is due to get its second reading today, and then pass its committee and third reading by the end of the week.

The Government says it has been under process for 19 months and that is long enough, but ACT MP Ken Shirley said today more time was needed.

"They will ram through this very bad legislation while the window is still open because they know how unreliable (New Zealand First leader) Winston Peters is -- he could change his mind next week," he said on National Radio.

"From my experience, whenever you legislate in haste you always live to regret it."

The Government is relying on New Zealand First's 13 votes to get the bill passed, and it will have a comfortable majority in Parliament.

It has reached agreement with NZ First on the final form of the bill, and the amendments that will be put into it during its committee stage.

Mr Winston Peters said today all parties should swing behind the law change.

He said: "This new law will simply confirm what everybody already believed, and what was the case, that the Crown owns the foreshore and seabed for all of us in perpetuity.

"Over the past few months, and especially the last few days, there has been wild speculation over the shape of the legislation and the mischief-makers have been working overtime," he said.

"Let me give an assurance that nobody is disadvantaged and Maori have lost nothing."

It is the committee stage that is going to take most of Parliament's time this week, when the details of the bill will be debated.

Mr Shirley and National's deputy leader Gerry Brownlee said the Government would cut down the time by insisting it was put through in parts, rather than in clauses.

The bill has six parts, each one containing numerous clauses, and debating it part-by-part is a way of shortening debates on it.

Mr Shirley said there should be an opportunity for Parliament to scrutinise every clause.

"But they will ram it through, meaning there will be only six debates instead of considering the 100 or so clauses," he said.

Green MP Metiria Turei said the Government was not going to release its amendments to the bill until just before it was debated.

"There will only be perhaps as little as a few hours to look at the changes the Government wants to make," she said.

"It's not enough time to give really serious thought to the impact of those changes."

- NZPA