National's foreshore 'flip-flop' mocked

Labour and New Zealand First joined forces to accuse National of flip-flopping over the foreshore and seabed issue yesterday, in the wake of a leaked caucus paper.

The discussion paper by Maori affairs spokesman Gerry Brownlee raised the prospect of changes to National's Maori policy. It said the foreshore legislation passed by the Government did not do enough to protect the public interest in the coastline.

"The Maori Party are talking about putting up a private member's bill to repeal the act. I'm not convinced they will do it. However we need to consider public opinion and decide on our position," it said.

NZ First leader Winston Peters used a parliamentary question to ask Prime Minister Helen Clark her views on what he called a "flip-flop or this policy prescription where one puts one's finger into the air and sees what the public thinks".

Helen Clark said it was an "extraordinary document".

"I have compared it with the National Party's policy which says, 'Return the seabed and foreshore to Crown ownership'. I am therefore absolutely staggered that the National Party is open to the possibility of repealing the law that puts foreshore and seabed beyond doubt in Crown ownership ... That is my definition of a flip-flop."

She did not read out the rest of National's policy, which is vague but does clearly state that it will repeal the legislation and replace it with new law enshrining Crown ownership.

National flirted with the Maori Party - expected to table a private member's bill simply repealing the law - over working together towards repeal in post-election negotiations.

But neither party was able to say how it would reconcile apparently opposite intentions about what would then happen.

Mr Brownlee said yesterday that "our overriding position is that the Foreshore and Seabed Act does not protect the coastline as the Government claims. It does need to be repealed and replaced."

Labour's Shane Jones said the paper showed National was undergoing a total u-turn on Maori policy since "Georgina te Heuheu was sacked for refusing to back up Don Brash and his anti-Maori racism".