Guest Editorial: Water- More than money at stake

The week that was water could well be bigger than the elephant in the room we may all have to face.

What started off as a sideline stoush between the Maori Council and the Waitangi Tribunal over water rights has now become a stand-off between political heavyweights, and stuck in the middle is what I call the cultural cringe of the country.

The cultural cringe is a two-way swinging door and this week started with the door being opened by the Maori Council.

As for the Maori Council being a recognised force, I am a bit of a bob each way given their leaders may not have the mana they believe they have. A quick ring around of local rangatira would put Maori Council leader Maanu Paul well down the leader ladder of Aotearoa.

The real question and the hard one that not many if any are prepared to ask is who or what is the real elephant in the room of this raruraru (upheaval)?

For my two bob's worth of treaty trouble, the elephant is racism and it's coming from both sides of the cultural coin.

Maori jumped in gumboots and all when Prime Minister John Key kicked the Treaty to touch and then Maori Party leader Tariana Turia donned her party potae and threw her hat in the ring to counter the korero of Key.

Then there are my Caucasian cousins who are pulling out their last few strands of hair saying "What next? What's left, God?"

Well no, Bishop Brian has that cash cow all signed up.

Sure Key said what many mainstream New Zealanders may think but he is the leader who represents one side of the Treaty partnership and to dismiss the other partner as inconsequential plays straight into the hands of hori haters who see the whole Treaty grievance industry as a travesty.

For Key to imply that water doesn't have a value, and therefore isn't capable of being owned, could have worked 20 years ago but not now that it's the new age oil and costs more than petrol at our local garage.

The Government itself treats water as a commodity to be controlled, appropriated, bought and sold. They are property rights so why shouldn't the original owners of that property - in this case tangata whenua - be it the Waikato or the Wairoa River here in Tauranga, have a crack at owning it?

There are a lot of mixed messages and mixed feelings hovering around Tauranga Moana and the concept of owning the water is almost too foreign to comprehend.

The danger is that the door for doubt about race relations in this country has been swung wide open and the elephant in the room could walk out and bowl us over.

What can't happen, but more than likely will, is each side will paint themselves into a corner until one or both will come out swinging in a direction that no one can win from.

Key has to hang tough for his core Caucasian voters and Turia for her tuturu Maori supporters.

This could mean the Maori Party walking away into the wilderness and the voice at the table will be lost for all Maori no matter what political persuasion they come from. To even consider the alternative of a protest party being the voice of Maori should scare us all.

Now is the time for true leadership to show their colours and if Tariana and Pita can hold their dignity we may just get through what is clearly becoming the biggest challenge of this Government's term.

What might have started with who owned what and when could end up costing our country a lot more than money.