Except that they had got hold of the wrong end of the stick big time.
There was no Maori revolutionary conspiracy, no organised criminal group - as anyone who knew that most benign of pantomime villains Mr Iti could have told them.
After years of trying to stitch together an increasingly implausible prosecution - not to mention police use of illegal surveillance and acting "unlawfully, unjustifiably and unreasonably" - the Crown settled on a couple of firearms charges.
Broad, on whose watch the raids took place, implied they had got it badly wrong when he left office and suggested an apology might come one day.
His successor Peter Marshall pressed on regardless and so it has been left to Bush to front up - and good on him.
He has not just done the Tuhoe iwi a service; he's done New Zealand a service.
