Campaign day 22: Last-minute rescue plan halts hikoi in its tracks

By JOHN ARMSTRONG

On the agenda at Saturday dinner-time; off the agenda by Sunday lunch-time.

Saturday night's television pictures of Gisborne Maori setting off on a hikoi to Parliament to save Young Nicks Head from foreign ownership yesterday prompted what may be the fastest settlement of a Maori grievance in New Zealand history.

Finance Minister Michael Cullen is now talking of taxpayers buying the headland to guarantee access rights for the Ngai Tamanuhiri people.

None of this has anything to do with the coincidental fact that we are entering the last week of the election campaign. Not half.

Worried that Labour supporters are too complacent about victory - Helen Clark issued another warning yesterday during her last major rally of the campaign - Labour is dotting every "i" and crossing every "t" to ensure votes are not lost for the want of a bit of expediency.

And the last thing Labour wants to see is Maori protesting at the gates of Parliament just before polling day.

But the future of Young Nicks Head is not solely the preserve of Maori. It is a matter of European heritage and raises the wider issue of nationalism.

Like her predecessors, Helen Clark has been conscious of the potency of nationalism and has associated her Government with New Zealand success stories - business, sporting and cultural.

Yesterday she made another nod in that direction, promising money to protect Kerikeri's historic Old Stone Store from floodwaters.

So much for the positives from pushing the unifying spirit of nationalism. There is a glaring potential negative - Qantas' pursuit of a stake in Government-owned Air New Zealand. So far, that has been a "sleeper" in the campaign.

Yesterday National leader Bill English again tried to shake it awake, accusing the Government of hiding the sale of a chunk of Air New Zealand to avoid a pre-election backlash.

He called on Helen Clark to front up on the airline's future and stop hiding behind last year's fuss over comments she made about Air New Zealand shares which resulted in a Securities Commission probe.

Helen Clark and Michael Cullen have also got away with saying little on the grounds that they are still waiting for the board of Air New Zealand to come to ministers with a proposal flowing from its discussions with Qantas. But for how long?

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