Audrey Young: Squawks at ready for foreshore plans

COMMENT

Opposition parties threw a tantrum in Parliament yesterday about not getting to see the foreshore and seabed proposals before the House rose for the year last night - but we have seen nothing yet.

When they see the proposals this afternoon, they will be torn between squawking with outrage and squawking with delight.

They will have plenty to object to with the apparent looseness of the planned solution to the idea that Maori might own the foreshore, and they will delight privately that the next election falls smack in the middle of the Government's plans.

The Government was delivered an immense problem by the Court of Appeal's decision that Maori might own the foreshore. Its response has been that no one owns it and that it will extinguish the right for Maori to claim customary title as we knew it.

The devil will not be in the detail because there isn't much. The devil will be in the delivery.

By the 2005 election, up to seven commissioners will be roving the country for the Maori Land Court and trying to cram what may be thousands of applications for customary title from iwi, hapu and even whanau into two years.

Working parties will have been set up in 16 regions to work on ways Maori groups that have proved customary title can have a greater management in the coastal area.

It doesn't say how. It sets out a process and an expectation - of greater participation by Maori. Others are left to join the dots.

A new bureaucracy will be established to protect customary rights, such as fishing and burial sites, that are already protected.

It is little wonder that Helen Clark's Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet will run the set-up. The Prime Minister will keep firm control of the ambitious plan.

The Opposition loves a flawed plan but a nebulous one gives an Opposition greater scope to exploit it.

Prime Minister Helen Clark has a fine balancing act to perform between now and the election. She has to convince Maori that while extinguishing their right to claim the old version of customary title over the foreshore (which could have led to private title), under the new statutory definition they will have a more important say over what happens to that beach.

And she has to convince middle New Zealand that while their access to the foreshore will be protected with the new "public domain" title, that it will not be threatened by the greater control Maori may have if they can prove a dual "customary title" to a particular patch.

Her hope will be that the squawking from the extreme ends of the spectrum will drown the other out.