What game is the Government playing with its decision to postpone the float of Mighty River Power so it can consult Maori on a proposal it finds unacceptable? Announcing the delay, the Prime Minister described the idea of a special class of shares for Maori as unworkable and contrary to national interest. Yet it seems to be the only topic of consultation envisaged before the float now scheduled for next year.
If this is a ruse to satisfy legal requirements of "good faith" in Treaty dealings, the Government's legal advisers have an odd notion of good faith. John Key does not pretend the Government is going to be diverted from its asset sales programme. "Sometimes the shortest way home is not the fastest way home," he said.
The Maori Council would certainly have gone to court if the Cabinet had decided on Monday to press ahead with the share float despite the interim ruling the council had obtained from the Waitangi Tribunal.
It had every chance of obtaining an injunction which could have delayed the share sale well into next year, so the Cabinet must have calculated it had nothing to lose by postponing, and something to gain by having talks in the interim with groups that have a Treaty interest in sources of hydro and geothermal power.
But if the "shares plus" solution is out of the question - and it should be - how does the Government plan to demonstrate good faith? The idea that certain shares would carry more weight than others in the company's governance is neither practical nor fair. It would negate the purpose of partial privatisation, which is to impose sharemarket discipline on the companies and keep them focused on financial performance.