The Government's decision to delay the partial float of Mighty River Power in order to consult iwi affected with waters used by the power company sounds sensible enough.
And the politics of rejecting outright the special treatment Maori shareholders might have had in the Waitangi Tribunal's activist solution of ''shares plus'' will suit National very well.
But the Government's actions are based very much on self-interest. It has calculated that its chances of being stopped by a court challenge will be less if it actually acts like a Treaty Partner and consults iwi by iwi, river by river, SOE by SOE.
It has had its legal advice from Crown Law double-checked by two QCs. Were it a treaty partner in from the heart and not a paper partner by judicial decree, it should not have needed legal advice to practise what it preached to consult affected partners.
The fact it thought it could get away with it, is telling.