Back in July, the Ministerial Review into the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004 reported back, concluding that the Act was "simply wrong in principle and approach". They recommended immediate repeal, with the Act replaced by interim legislation recognising customary rights as a stepping-stone to a settlement. Yesterday, Cabinet discussed its response to that recommendation, and decided to do... nothing. Repeal is apparently inevitable, but the government does not seem in any hurry to do so.
The positive side of this is that it gives more time for consultation, to build a lasting solution with iwi and hapu. The negative side is that it gives more time for the government to get cold feet. Having whipped up racism in 2003 and 2004 in response to Labour's original passage of the Act, National now finds itself grappling with the same issue, and likely afraid that Labour will do the same to them. Meanwhile, the same dark forces who pushed National to pander to racists for electoral gain back then, and again last month over Maori TV and the Rugby World Cup, will be seeing the same possibilities, whispering their poison, and trying to frustrate a solution so as to engineer a Maori Party walkout in the hope of a windfall of redneck votes. Indeed, they seem to already be making their presence felt:
It is understood some National Cabinet members want a clear explanation of Maori customary rights, or title, and how that might be interpreted by the courts.Given that this information is in the very report they are responding to, its hard to see this as anything other than a delaying tactic.
The problem for the rednecks is that we've all seen that their "solution" is unworkable. They can stamp their feet and say "this is final" all they like, but an unjust solution unilaterally imposed by Pakeha might will simply not be accepted by Maori. The only thing which will make the issue go away is justice - and if that is lacking, it will simply be relitigated in every forum until it is not. Currently, the most effective forum is the electoral system. And if the Maori Party get burned this time, you can bet that they will be far less accommodating of any future government.
And therein lies the problem: with its relentless focus on short-term thinking, will National's rednecks really care about that?
