Act MPs slam gun protest 'immunity'

Act MPs have criticised the failure to arrest Tuhoe nationalist Tame Iti for having shotgun during a protest last month at a Waitangi Tribunal hearing into Tuhoe claims.

Stephen Franks, a former lawyer, said in Parliament he believed Mr Iti's action could earn him a jail term of up to four years under the Arms Act.

He also said Mr Iti had gloated about the incident in news reports.

But Police Minister George Hawkins told Parliament that the MP's criticism was premature and he had been advised police were still investigating the incident.

TV3 news footage shows Mr Iti firing the double-barrel shotgun into a New Zealand flag.

Mr Iti told the Herald he had not been interviewed by police about it and the local policeman had been present on the day, January 16.

"The Minister of Police has no rights in Tuhoe country, as simple as that," he said last night.

And despite the footage, Mr Iti said he only aimed at the sky.

"I did not point the gun at anybody particularly."

Act MP Gerry Eckhoff said Mr Iti appeared immune where others would be prosecuted.

"How can the minister stand by and allow the police to tell farmers that if they brandish a firearm at an intruder who is threatening their property they will face full prosecution by the law, when, quite patently, Tame Iti and his gang are immune."

Mr Hawkins said: "New Zealand's laws covering self-defence are clear. The matter of Mr Iti is still under investigation."

National MP Tony Ryall asked why Mr Hawkins was "so informed" about the investigation into Mr Iti but "knew nothing when it came to days and days" of parliamentary questioning about the police investigation into a burglary complaint at the home of Judge Coral Shaw.

Mr Hawkins said that in the Shaw case, he had refused to look into a file, whereas he had been advised that police were still looking into the Tame Iti case.

Mr Iti said the MPs were acting like "typical politicians".

"They need to grow up and learn something. Tell them they owe nearly a million acres of Tuhoe land and they are nitpicking about an incident not worth talking about it."

The events filmed for television were part of a re-enactment of when the Government invaded Tuhoe in the 1860s. Mr Iti, topless, was wearing what looked like a trooper's hat and a skirt.

Some events occurred on a road and some on a marae.

"We wanted the Waitangi Tribunal and the Crown to feel what it was like 100 years ago. We wanted them to experience heat via smoke and the opportunity for Tuhoe to demonstrate that," Mr Iti said.

"So we did exactly that."

Previous reports said Tuhoe elders had apologised to tribunal members who were greeted at Tauarau marae at Ruatoki, south of Whakatane, by burning cars and chanting protesters on horseback.

The hearing that day was the sixth of seven the tribunal was conducting into land confiscation.