Foreshore and Seabed

What began with a political bang - in the creation of the Foreshore and Seabed Act in 2004 and associated formation of the Maori Party - ended in a distinctly muted whimper.

Only 11 percent of Maori think the Government's new foreshore and seabed policy is an acceptable solution to the controversial issue, a poll says.

Newly independent MP Hone Harawira says it was "dumb" and shameful that he forgot to vote on the Bill that is the main reason for his break from the Maori Party.

The major saving grace for Labour Party leader Phil Goff and his caucus' decision not to support the replacement legislation for the Foreshore and Seabed Act is that he hopes to work with other parties to form alternative legislation which would retain free access for everyone to the foreshore not in private ownership, recognise Maori customary rights, and allow Maori to take their claims to court.

When it introduced its replacement for the Foreshore and Seabed Act, the Government warned that if a consensus could not be found the status quo would remain; in other words, Maori hopes for legal enforcement of the provable property rights to coastal areas would remain unfulfilled.

New Zealand's economic prospects could be damaged if the Government pressed ahead with the new foreshore and seabed legislation, Act New Zealand deputy leader John Boscawen said in Dunedin yesterday.

Replacement foreshore and seabed legislation will create decades of Treaty claims and allow only some Maori to have their say, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says.

The legislation that will replace the Foreshore and Seabed Act is open for public submissions and the Maori affairs select committee says its members are going to travel widely to hear them.

The new marine and coastal legislation may not be a final solution to the divisive foreshore and seabed issue and could be relitigated in future, Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell says.

Nothing this week had a hope of upstaging the fall and fall of Chris Carter, which had the public transfixed by the MP's sheer bloody-mindedness and the root cause of his self-destruction.