Turia backs down in foreshore standoff

By RUTH BERRY, political reporter

Tariana Turia failed to follow through on her foreshore threats yesterday, backing down after a long late-night wooing session by Helen Clark.

In turn the Prime Minister, determined to avoid a byelection, has given the dithering MP still more time to decide what she will do.

Mrs Turia is being encouraged to take the "honourable" step and accept a temporary stint on the backbenches if she votes against the foreshore bill.

A new alternative she is being asked to consider involves avoiding casting a vote altogether, enabling her to remain a minister.

The Tai Hauauru MP has spent several months agonising over how to express her opposition to the foreshore bill. The Associate Maori Affairs Minister initially said she planned to abstain, but then raised the stakes by suggesting she may cross the floor.

She has also threatened to force a byelection if Helen Clark carried through on her statement that Mrs Turia would "almost certainly" lose her ministerial jobs if she voted against the bill.

Negotiations to pull Mrs Turia back from a byelection have been on-going.

They appeared to have faltered on Monday when Mrs Turia told Radio Waatea she would "definitely be voting against" the bill and planned to inform the Labour caucus of that yesterday.

Mrs Turia said she had been asked to resign her portfolios by the Labour Party if she took that step but was "not prepared to" because she had done nothing wrong.

In a veiled reference to the byelection, she said she had no plans to retire and made it clear the next step was Helen Clark's.

Top-level Beehive sources upped the ante in response, suggesting Mrs Turia had misjudged the situation by thinking Helen Clark would "blink first", adding the only retreat possible was Mrs Turia's.

The pair talked for the first time since Easter on Monday night when they held a long meeting.

It is not believed Helen Clark secured any assurances from Mrs Turia at the meeting - aside from one that she would not march with the hikoi - where the Prime Minister spelt out her "bottom lines" while impressing on the MP her desire to keep her in the party.

Mrs Turia's defiance appeared to have melted away by yesterday's caucus meeting.

She arrived in a car travelling alongside Helen Clark's and police rushed her into Premier House by a side entrance.

The MP left within the hour, hiding in the back of the Prime Minister's car to again avoid the media, having said nothing to the caucus.

Helen Clark later emerged to deflect suggestions the Government had again delayed making important decisions. She highlighted the caucus' unanimous decision to grant Mrs Turia and Tainui MP Nanaia Mahuta permission to vote against the bill and said she had spelled out that Mrs Turia would lose her warrants if she crossed the floor.

"What I have indicated today is that a vote against a Government bill by a minister is a step too far."

While Helen Clark only in fact formalised positions which had been already made clear, her camp suggested yesterday Mrs Turia may have "naively" believed her warrants weren't under real threat.

Helen Clark said Mrs Turia had been asked to consider simply failing to turn up for next Thursday's first vote - which insiders are encouraging Mrs Turia to view as a Parihaka-style act of passive resistance.

She stressed Mrs Turia may later recover her ministerial portfolios, if she "behaved honourably" and resigned them after crossing the floor.

She had not detected any desire on Mrs Turia's behalf to leave Labour and accepted "that this is an agonising decision for her".

"My impression is that her people want her to be able to continue to do the job she has been doing."

Mrs Turia said her role was to show leadership by expressing opposition.

She had heard her electorate's call to oppose the bill and had put those views forward.

"I have done nothing wrong. However, I do accept the doctrine of Cabinet collective responsibility."

She had been asked to consider another option - understood to be the non-vote - and would now discuss that with supporters, Mrs Turia said.

The Prime Minister refused to say yesterday whether she was confident a byelection had been avoided.

If Mrs Turia took that step, however, the Government would console itself with the thought it has sent Maori electorate voters a clear signal it had not tried to force the MP out.

National leader Don Brash said Helen Clark should have sacked the MP for her defiance.

"Unless Ms Clark takes that action, she is confirming in the most public way that under Labour there are two standards of accountability - one for Maori ministers and another for non-Maori."

Dr Brash said it was inconceivable that Social Development Minister Steve Maharey, for example, would be able to campaign against the Government's welfare policy and retain his portfolio.