Words that made waves

By MONIQUE DEVEREUX

Tom Harrison is not a racist man. The Marlborough mayor will tell anyone that "for free", as will his family. His Maori son-in-law even wrote to Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen to make it clear.

He is, however, a tired man.

For the mayor who found himself at the centre of the foreshore and seabed storm it has been a turbulent year. And although his own role in the debate has been overtaken, the stress has taken its toll.

Harrison insists he is a fair and reasonable mayor who was working on behalf of his community and "merely reiterating what's been said in the living rooms and bars and churches of this country".

On Wednesday there will be plenty more said when the Government releases its foreshore and seabed policy which will determine the status of the coastal "land".

The policy has been determined after a frantic round of hui and consultation around the country in September, although the Government eased its foot off the pedal in October, saying the legislation could take up to six months to develop.

This phase of the debate really began six years ago - before Harrison was Marlborough's mayor - when local iwi, frustrated that they were being shut out of the marine farming industry by the district council, went to the courts.

After six years of litigation and appeals, the Court of Appeal ruled the Maori Land Court had jurisdiction to hear the iwi claims on the foreshore and seabed. That landmark decision was delivered on June 19.

When Harrison was told of the Court of Appeal decision he dictated and distributed a press statement calling for Prime Minister Helen Clark to legislate immediately to cement Crown ownership. Then he went home from the office and gathered his family together.

"'This is going to be a rough ride', I told them. But I said it was something that had to be done. I couldn't have got through it without them."

He expected the national outrage and a racial divide. He did not expect to be personally attacked by Cullen, speaking in Parliament under privilege, and to be called a racist.

"I've seen this before, it's a method to cow people into silence. It's the worst kind of intimidation, and Dr Cullen did this to me, in a venue where I couldn't respond. The worst thing you can do is call somebody a racist or a redneck."

Harrison is still waiting for an apology. Cullen has refused. He has not repeated his comments but has said: "I certainly think that the mayor, in stating that those iwi who won the Court of Appeal case were Maori bully boys, was going well beyond the grounds of reasonable public discourse."

Harrison was also surprised by his council, which in September voted 12 to two to abandon any plans to take the Court of Appeal decision to the Privy Council, essentially dropping the hot potato that they had started cooking.

When the Weekend Herald visited his Blenheim office Harrison was still angered by that vote.

"I think they betrayed not only this community but they betrayed New Zealanders with what they did. It was quite disgusting."

Although the decision was made at a public meeting, there was no discussion before the vote. It was the last of three motions put to the council - the first and second were to carry on with the case and were also lost, but by smaller margins.

The reason for the dramatic swing that saw all but two people vote to drop the action and "make the whole thing go away and be someone else's problem" is known only to the 13 councillors and Harrison, as discussion about it was behind the closed chamber doors. The mayor believes this will be a contentious issue for his constituents.

"I know the message I was getting from everybody in this community and around New Zealand. And it was from Maori and non-Maori. They all said thank you for bringing this issue to a point where it has to be sorted. They wanted it sorted. Dropping the issue now is not what they wanted."

He has a large box of correspondence from people across the country sent over the past three months in support. There are cards on every table in his office. He can reel off endless stories of people coming to his office to thank him, kaumatua included, for being part of the movement to get the issue settled.

There was also abuse, some of which Harrison considers to be on the borderline of threatening. But he believes his fellow "gutless" councillors will find at the polls next year that the community offering support does not take kindly to being let down.

The Marlborough District Council is a unitary authority, which makes it one of the busiest in New Zealand with an enormous geographical area. Its powers stretch along the coastline halfway to Kaikoura and halfway to Nelson.

"So we are a very experienced council and we hardly entered into this issue lightly. We were well aware of the repercussions," Harrison says.

He believes the Government could have done a lot better in its own handling of it. "And to call me racist ... well, take a look at the third of the four Government principles on the foreshore and seabed they put out in their discussion document."

The principle states: "Processes should exist to enable the customary interests of whanau, hapu and iwi ... and specific rights to be identified and protected."

"It only mentions Maori. It is absolute blatant racism," says Harrison. "What about my protection?"

He says there should not be any privilege for anyone in law based on ethnicity because it creates two distinct classes of citizen. He says he has carefully studied both versions of the Treaty of Waitangi.

"Nowhere in there does it say anything about giving one or the other side special privilege."

In fact, he believes the treaty settlement process should be dropped. "For 18 years we've been rectifying the wrongs. This generation is not responsible for what happened 140 years ago. This generation should be praised for what they have done in trying to right the wrongs.

"But now the claims have become more outrageous. And that's the view of the general population. We've accepted that because we want to put things right and we have to move on."

Any action on threats from some Maori to protest on the beaches this summer would, he says, spark an anti-Maori backlash.

He agrees with Associate Maori Affairs Minister John Tamihere's comment this week that too many Maori are interested only in the monetary value of customary rights.

"Any sympathy anyone still had for Maori with those views will dissipate rather smartly if they take to the beach to protest."

He said he hoped the Government's policy would "get it right, for all our sakes".

This is Harrison's second term as mayor but not the first foray into politics for the diminutive, English-born former RAF flight engineer.

In 1993 he stood unsuccessfully for New Zealand First in the Tasman electorate. He is proud to say he was one of the first people to join the party and still believes Winston Peters would make a very good Prime Minister.

He stood once more for the party - and lost - before the financial pressure of campaigning took its toll. He was forced to sell his "dream home".

He still likes to stand on a stage and deliver a spiel to the masses, but these days it's done in song. Last month he performed in the Blenheim Operatic Society production Celebration.

Now in his 60s, he is settled as mayor and will be standing again next year. As the foreshore and seabed issue has shown, he is not afraid of tough talk.

"I just say what needs to be said. I am a spokesperson for the people who put me here, who want me to speak up for them."