Cullen hints at coastal concessions

By RUTH BERRY POLITICAL REPORTER

As waves of Maori anger crashed against the Government yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen made conciliatory noises, promising to review laws that affect customary foreshore and seabed rights.

He hinted that more funds would be pumped into the non-commercial customary fishing regulations regime and stressed that proposals for resolving the noisy debate were mostly open for discussion.

But he also made it clear the Government's plan to prevent hapu and iwi from seeking freehold title to foreshore or seabed in the Maori Land Court was a bottom line.

This was the issue sparking accusations of a land grab from many Maori yesterday, inciting veteran activist Titewhai Harawira to revisit her earlier call for a land march.

While Mrs Harawira may be one of the "extremists" whose views the Government says it will ignore, other influential and more moderate iwi and Maori leaders expressed similar concerns.

Ngati Kahungunu leader Ngahiwi Tomoana backed Mrs Harawira's calls for a land march, and Federation of Maori Authorities deputy chairman Paul Morgan and Te Runanga o Ngapuhi chairman Sonny Tau spoke of a land grab.

The Government's Maori MPs are coming under pressure. Te Tai Tokerau MP Dover Samuels yesterday revealed that he and Associate Maori Affairs Minister John Tamihere had received hate mail from extremists on both sides of the debate.

As the Government tries to juggle the conflicting demands of various interest groups, it also faces challenges mustering political support to get its legislation through.

Its most likely allies are United Future and the Greens, but both are holding out.

United Future leader Peter Dunne said yesterday that his party wanted Crown ownership of the foreshore and seabed and was also concerned that customary rights needed better definition.

Green co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said her party would not support the Cabinet's plan to extinguish customary title, which she described as an example of the Government's monocultural approach.

Dr Cullen said the Government had not used the terminology of title because it would then have to be factored into the "public domain" definition, which would get complicated.

"People may come back on that and that's all part of the consultation. But people shouldn't get hung up on title as if it's different from simply a statement on what the rights are. It's not."

He expected a number of changes to the Government's proposals would result from the six-week consultation phase, roundly criticised by iwi and hapu as too short.

The Government is believed to have nutted out a framework for recognising Maori interests in marine farming, but Dr Cullen would not discuss this yesterday.

But he did signal that the Government was willing to review several other key laws and policies hapu and iwi have raised concerns about since the coastal issue erupted.

Marine reserves legislation, now before a select committee, has been repeatedly criticised by hapu and iwi, who argue that the establishment of reserves will impact on their customary commercial and non-commercial fishing rights.

It needed to be worked through "very carefully" and the Government was "absolutely" willing to revisit it in light of this case, Dr Cullen said.

"We have to ensure the bill is amended in such a form that that conflict is managed or eliminated."

Similar effort would be put into the development of the Oceans Policy and co-management rights may flow from all those considerations.

The Resource Management Act, which many iwi and hapu say has failed to protect existing customary rights, would also be reviewed.

"Whether any changes to the law are required is one issue ... or we may need to put more effort into making sure the potential already within the legislation is fully expressed."

Dr Cullen also said Maori were concerned about the failure of non-commercial customary fishing rights - which allow for special customary fishing takes and the establishment of customary fishing zones - and hinted more resources would be made available.