National unlikely to support seabed bill

National has dashed the Maori Party's hopes of repealing the foreshore and seabed law, saying it is "most unlikely" to support co-leader Tariana Turia's bill.

Mrs Turia's private member's bill was pulled from the ballot yesterday, less than a month after it was lodged.

It seeks simply to repeal the controversial legislation enacted by the last Government. Co-leader Pita Sharples welcomed the drawing of the bill, saying it occurred exactly 10 years after Mrs Turia was elected to Parliament and celebrated a decade of excellent leadership.

However, it appears destined for the dustbin, after National deputy leader Gerry Brownlee yesterday virtually ruled out his party's support.

The Maori Party would require the support of National, Act, the Greens and United Future to get the bill passed. National opposed the law and has previously said it would consider supporting Mrs Turia's bill.

But Mr Brownlee said: "We are most unlikely to support it. We don't believe the Foreshore and Seabed Act passed by the Government was adequate, but we're not convinced that simply repealing it and going back to where we were before is appropriate.

"We've always said that a repeal bill without a solution to the problem that caused the foreshore and seabed bill in the first place, wasn't the best way to go."

The "more to be done" aspect was "the hard bit" Mr Brownlee said, and would be very difficult to achieve outside Government and without the advice of Crown Law and legislative drafters.

National and the Maori Party are considered unlikely to agree on what to do with the issue after a repeal.

This would be another problem for National if it did support a return to the status quo, but Mr Brownlee would only say the two parties "may have" different opinions on that front.

He was equivocal when asked if National planned to revisit the law if it became the government.

"We've always said there were aspects of the law that were unsatisfactory. We are still waiting to see just to what extent claims to the foreshore and seabed are going to be dealt with by the Maori Land Court."

Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples yesterday refused to accept defeat. "It's a pity they've chosen not to do something with us if that's the case, but I'm still optimistic they will. We'll continue negotiating with them."