Political review: Truce called as Clark subdues Maori rebellion

By JOHN ARMSTRONG

If the Labour Party appeared to be teetering on the brink of crisis this week, it was only teetering.

Labour was well aware it was just a few careless words away from a fractious internal argument over Maori claims to ownership of the foreshore and seabed spilling over into a debilitating public squabble.

The extreme sensitivity required in handling one of the most highly charged issues that this Government has faced was evident in the Prime Minister suddenly becoming media shy and taking a circuitous route to Parliament to avoid reporters and television cameras.

With rebellion in her ranks, she was reluctant to answer questions, given the difficulty the Government faces in reconciling the competing rights of Maori and non-Maori.

Helen Clark has had one message to soothe Pakeha and other non-Maori voters nervous the barbed-wire fences will go up around their local beach and they will be shut out.

She has another message to reassure Maori angry at potential loss of traditional property rights.

Putting both messages in the same sound-bite sends a mixed message.

Given the issue is so potent - even iconic - and opinions so entrenched, the Government, in trying to satisfy everyone, runs the risk of satisfying no-one.

Consequently, it is fudging things until it can find a path through the legal complexities surrounding such terms as "customary title" and "customary rights" and find a middle ground.

The Prime Minister's initial insistence that the foreshore and seabed be vested in Crown ownership, thereby overriding the previous week's Court of Appeal ruling favouring Maori, resulted in Clark, for the first time, facing a public challenge to her authority on a policy matter from within her caucus - and from members of her Cabinet.

That Labour was able to manage its way through this with little damage to itself is testimony to the cohesion and discipline instilled into the party's caucus.

But it is also an indication of the latitude given to Labour's nine Maori MPs to take an independent stance.

Just as MMP has necessitated the insertion of an "agree to disagree" clause into Cabinet rules to protect the interests of minority coalition partners, Clark is giving her Maori ministers a degree of freedom as quid pro quo recognition of Maori as a special minority - a minority which just coincidently votes overwhelmingly for Labour.

In the process, the convention that ministers not disassociate themselves from Cabinet decisions is coming under strain.

Not surprisingly, Opposition charges that Maori ministers breached collective Cabinet responsibility fell on deaf ears.

That is the price of imposing MMP on a Westminster-style Parliament.

And while the Maori rebellion has now given way to reconciliation, the truce has also come at a price.

To mollify her Maori wing, Clark has sacrificed clarity for confusion.

Two days after saying a special law would be passed to guarantee title to the foreshore and seabed is vested in the Crown - not Maori - the Prime Minister was indicating a rethink on how best to maintain public access for all New Zealanders while acknowledging Maori customary rights to certain areas of the foreshore and seabed.

This has been interpreted as a backdown. It is more a backing off. In stressing her Government is not going to allow Maori claims to title to trample upon "traditional Kiwi ethos", Clark has drawn a line in the sand, so to speak, to ensure beaches do not end up as freehold land traded for private exclusive use.

Having got that message across to non-Maori voters, she is now open to alternative means of drawing that line other than by a naked assertion of Crown ownership.

Exploring the options will be the task of an ad hoc committee chaired by Michael "Mr Fix-it" Cullen, which was swiftly established to appease Labour's Maori MPs.

Those MPs exhibited a controlled fury.

Collectively, they signed a fiery statement written in Tariana Turia's office which referred to the "confiscation" of land and insisted the consent of the tangata whenua was required before Maori customary title could be extinguished.

The statement was clearly tailored for consumption within Maoridom to answer critics who accuse the Maori caucus of being spineless.

With the exception of Turia, the Maori MPs were far more circumspect when they spoke individually, however.

To a degree, this was recognition that the horse had bolted and they were unlikely to force a prime ministerial U-turn.

Better to make the best of a bad job by negotiating more acceptable wording of special legislation, particularly in its application of Maori customary rights.

In part, this was recognition that the Prime Minister holds all the cards. The Maori caucus cannot block any legislation affirming Crown ownership because Clark knows she can rely on National and Act voting for it.

Crossing the floor would be a purely symbolic gesture. It would embarrass Clark and Labour, but achieve little else.

As for Maori voters annoyed with Labour, they can only turn to the Greens, the only party likely to oppose the special legislation.

Labour, however, has invested big-time in terms of Budget funding and special programmes to shore up its Maori vote - a vote which could be the margin between being in government or out of government.

That has left Labour exposed to Opposition charges it is promoting separatism.

To deflect such charges, the Government has exploited the Waitangi Tribunal's ruling on oil and gas reserves and now the Court of Appeal's ruling on the foreshore and seabed to squash Maori aspirations to ownership of such resources.

Maoridom's muted response to the Government's "no" on oil and gas may have led senior ministers to under-anticipate the sheer breadth and depth of the hostile reaction to loss of title to the foreshore and seabed.

They say they had no choice as they would have been struck by an even bigger backlash from Labour's Pakeha constituency.

And therein lies the power of the Maori caucus. The more it agitates, the more annoyed Pakeha voters become. But appeasing the Maori caucus annoys those voters even more.

In trying to keep everyone happy on the beach, Clark is between a rock and a hard place.