Posts Tagged ‘foreshore and seabed’

Kiwi Treason

Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, August 4th, 2016 - 181 comments

Vegemite and marmite taste the same, rugby is naff, John Clarke’s an Australian. What?

Moving away from the politics of fear

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 pm, November 2nd, 2014 - 53 comments

Politics from a position of fear is never going to be successful. Politics based on conviction and the ability to put forward a sound argument is a much better strategy. Yes, anyone selected is going to be subject to attack. But there’s no point in allowing that to cloud our judgement.

The luxury of an ethical opposition

Written By: - Date published: 11:05 am, August 2nd, 2012 - 38 comments

Although Key’s privatisation programme has hit plenty of problems with Maori water rights, his job is made a whole lot easier by the luxury of an ethical main opposition party.

Iwi and the riverbeds

Written By: - Date published: 8:51 am, July 3rd, 2012 - 15 comments

The only remaining possible legal threat to the Nats’ plans to sell off our power companies is a Treaty based claim to water rights or riverbeds.

Another foreshore hikoi

Written By: - Date published: 4:07 pm, March 22nd, 2011 - 13 comments

Around 300 hikoi marchers arrived at Parliament this afternoon to protest against the Nat / Maori Party rebranded version of the  foreshore and seabed bill.  The numbers weren’t huge, but the hikoi brought a powerful symbolic message.

Ruling out Hone

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, March 15th, 2011 - 77 comments

Labour leader Phil Goff has ruled out working with Hone Harawira even if Mr Harawira heads a party of several MPs.  I think it’s a foolish decision and I think the reasons don’t stack up.  Instead of ruling out Hariwria, Labour should rise to the challenge.

Hone Harawira’s speech

Written By: - Date published: 3:22 pm, March 10th, 2011 - 20 comments

Hone Hariwira’s speech on the second reading of the Marine and Coastal Area Bill.  Agree with him or not, there is no denying the passion.  The Maori Party may have made a huge mistake in pushing him out, thus leaving him free to speak his mind…

Quake used as foreshore cover

Written By: - Date published: 9:14 am, March 8th, 2011 - 9 comments

Today Parliament sits in full for the first time since the second earthquake. There’s lots to attend to: the government is required to explain the state of national emergency, change the census law, create a one-off provincial holiday, and alter the law on school zoning. But it looks like the Nats are more concerned with slipping through their foreshore and seabed bill.

Nats bully bulldozer still running

Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, February 11th, 2011 - 18 comments

The Nats regard parliamentary process as an inconvenience to which they must pay lip service, but nothing more.  They started as soon as they took office, with repeated abuse of urgency.  The current disgraceful process over the foreshore & seabed legislation is just the latest instalment.

Waitangi up close

Written By: - Date published: 1:07 am, February 7th, 2011 - 37 comments

A personal perspective on the Waitangi celebrations. Where John Key went wrong, how Hone was out and proud, and the left’s reception. Also: an enjoyment of Maori burgers over kai moana this year.

Time for Turia to go

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, December 11th, 2010 - 65 comments

Labour has opened the door on cross party negotiations to achieve a true consensus on the foreshore.  But Tariana Turia is too locked in to ancient personal hatreds to do anything but reject the offer.  In doing so she has become a huge obstacle to progress on the very goals that she claims to support.  It’s time for Turia to step down.

Flip flopping on the beach

Written By: - Date published: 11:02 am, December 10th, 2010 - 38 comments

The usual suspects are accusing Labour of “flip flopping” on its position on the foreshore and seabed.  You have to admire their bare-faced gall eh?

No closure on the foreshore

Written By: - Date published: 12:43 pm, December 9th, 2010 - 49 comments

For a while it looked like the Nats’ Marine and Coastal Areas Bill was going to represent a successful and enduring solution to the foreshore debate in NZ.  But Maori support evaporated.  Now the new Bill has suffered a further massive blow to its credibility.  Labour is pulling its support…

Charging for the foreshore

Written By: - Date published: 1:32 pm, November 2nd, 2010 - 9 comments

I don’t know about you, but I have certainly been confused about ACT’s move to insert a last-minute clause into the new Marine and Coastal Areas (Takutai Moana) Bill (proposed replacement for the Foreshore and Seabed Act). Canterbury legal academic David Round sets out some of the issues involved.  With deep divisions within Maoridom, and a growing conservative backlash, this mess isn’t going away any time soon…

On the foreshore

Written By: - Date published: 3:21 pm, October 30th, 2010 - 11 comments

Seems like the Maori Party conference is off to a rocky start.  Likely to get even rockier as they move on to the main event today, the vexed issue of the foreshore and seabed.  The differences between the existing Act and the proposed replacement Bill are mostly symbolic.  Is a symbolic change enough for the Maori Party?

Foreshore ends with a whimper

Written By: - Date published: 10:58 am, June 15th, 2010 - 49 comments

If that is the foreshore and seabed debate effectively resolved we should all take a moment to celebrate. It will be good to have the issue behind us as a country and move on. Given the agreement between National and the Maori Party it looks like the whole debate was mostly about semantics. Meanwhile in practical terms iwi say they want the kind of rights that Ngati Porou secured – under the current Act.

Maori Party going to cave?

Written By: - Date published: 3:22 pm, June 14th, 2010 - 50 comments

The signals are that the Maori Party is going to cave on the foreshore and seabed. National has offered a symbolic repeal of the Foreshore and Seabed Act while leaving the actual law essentially unchanged. If they cave in, they will have abandoned their primary policy for the sake of power. Let’s hope they don’t. [Updated – it seems an agreement of some kind has been reached]

Trouble ahead foreshore

Written By: - Date published: 8:05 am, June 7th, 2010 - 67 comments

At a recent meeting about 100 Iwi leaders rejected the Government’s proposed reform for the Foreshore and Seabed Act. That means the issue remains a ticking time bomb for Key. He is going to have to enrage either the Maori Party or his core Iwi/Kiwi constituency. Either way there’s trouble ahead.

English: do what we need to do to win

Written By: - Date published: 3:17 pm, May 8th, 2010 - 23 comments

Bill English is trying to assuage National Party member who are concerned that the Party is betraying its principles (ha!) and giving too much to the Maori Party saying “all those decisions are being made in the context of the longer-term view, reaching our objectives over the next four or five years” – winning a second term trumps principle. It’s about power for its own sake.

Quick thoughts

Written By: - Date published: 11:06 am, February 8th, 2010 - 36 comments

It’s obvious to anyone with a brain that a government that spends half its time on holiday and the rest on PR stunts is never going to get New Zealand to catch Australia by 2025 but having the Reserve Bank Governor say its impossible, that’s hugely embarrassing. Of course, Key is refusing to acknowledge the […]

Symbol or substance?

Written By: - Date published: 9:11 am, July 7th, 2009 - 28 comments

It seems to me that National has fundamentally misunderstood what the foreshore and seabed debate is about. Key’s statements yesterday suggest it is about a mere symbolical recognition of an iwi’s traditional ties to sections of foreshore and seabed. It’s not. He seems to think it’s about beaches. It’s not. He seems to equate mana […]

Cowardice, bigotry and saying whatever it takes

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, July 2nd, 2009 - 77 comments

I’ll be glad to see the back of the Foreshore & Seabed Act. For many on the Left, including myself, its been a monument to Labour’s failure of nerve in the face of a campaign by National to exploit the underlying racism of Pakeha New Zealand for electoral gain. Yes, there was a certain electoral […]

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