PM plays down Maori Party meet

The Prime Minister says her meeting last week with Maori Party leaders was part of a normal schedule, and had nothing to do with the Government's actions over the sale of surplus Landcorp properties.

The meeting was on the same day Waiariki MP Te Ururoa Flavell had called for widespread land occupations and State Owned Enterprises Minister Trevor Mallard put a hold on selling two Landcorp sales, leading to speculation the Maori Party had more influence on the Government than Labour's Maori MPs.

But Helen Clark says she talks often with the Greens, United's Peter Dunne and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, and the Maori Party also needs to be in the loop.

“We have certainly been working at ministerial level, select committee level, through the whips in Parliament, with the Maori Party representatives, and we both though the time had come to sit down and have a korero at the leadership level,” Ms Clark says.

GLAVISH BACKS RICKARDS’ REINSTATEMENT FIGHT

Support for suspended Auckland police head Clint Rickards has come from Auckland tribe Ngati Whatua.

Runanga chairperson Nayda Glavish says now that three juries have found Mr Rickards not guilty of historic rape allegations, it's time to let him get back on the job.

Mr Rickards is fighting to retain his job, with Auckland mayor Diock Hubbard saying he wasn't welcome in the city and Prime Minister Helen Clark questioning his judgment.

But Ms Glavish says the law has taken its course, and people should accept the result.

“For us to have a mayor of Auckland who’s here today and gone tomorrow, daring to say that he’s not welcome back to Auckland - who do they think they are,” Ms Glavish says.

She says Mr Rickards is being forced through another trial by media.

MAORI STORIES FOR IN FLIGHT FILM

Maori tourism operators may get an opportunity to win the hearts and minds of tourists before they even touch down on the whenua.

The Maori Tourism Council is preparing new films to be screened on Air New Zealand inbound flights from later this year.

Producer Libby Hakaraia from Blue Bach Productions says the film is in response to surveys which show inbound tourists wanted Maori content in such introductory films.

Ms Hakaria says the first film tells the story of Maui fishing up the North Island, and is being shot now around Te Upoko o Te Ika with operators from Wellington, Kapiti and Palliser Bay.

“Every place, every landmark if you like on our whenua tells a story, so we’re going to the operators and asking them to tell their stories with their kaumauta, with their tamariki, with you know,” Ms Hakaraia says.

LABOUR MAORI GIVEN CREDIT FOR LAND SALE STOP

The Prime Minister says it was Labour's Maori MPs who stopped the sale of Landcorp properties, not the Maori Party.

Helen Clark says Labour has a firm position against the sale of state owned enterprises, and its own Maori MPs raised the alarm that Landcorp was selling off potentially significant land it had been given when it was formed in the late 1980s.

The Maori Party claimed credit for the back-down, which came on the same day as its call for widespread occupations for disputed Crown land.

But Ms Clark says that won the party no points, as parliamentary parties should work through the political process rather than hark back to their protest roots.

“The Labour Maori MPs did work through that process, and we got results. We are now going back and looking at all the holdings of Landcorp, and we’re asking ourselves, actually, should there have been in 1987 a different decision about the fate of this land,” Ms Clark says.

She says the government needs to develop a vision for public lands.

GANG PATCH BAN OVER-REACTION

A Maori social worker says Wanganui's proposal for a law to ban gang insignia is a gross overreaction.

The Wanganui City Council's plan to write a bylaw came unstuck because it could breach the Bill of Rights, so it has instead asked its local National Party MP, Chester Borrows, to sponsor a members bill which can apply to other cities as well.

Taotahi Pihama, who has worked with gangs in the prison system for many years, says gangs are far less of a problem than Wanganui mayor Michael Laws is making out, and their ability to intimidate ordinary citizens is overstated.

“Police can be intimidating with their uniforms, just as anybody else can be intimidating with clothes that are not usually identified with their everyday activity, and sure, the gangs have attracted attention for their negative and at times unseemly behaviour but very rare in my view do you see them in the city,” Mr Pihama says.

MAORI PLAYERS TO FORE AT TOUCH TOURNEY

Maori players have been to the fore at today's national touch rugby tournament on Auckland's North Shore.

Waatea News reporter Dale Husband says it has always been a sport with a strong Maori presence, and the whanau have been out in force today to give their support.

“In a nail biting final in the open mixed division, Bay of Plenty scored an extra time try to win 7-6,” Husband says.

“Auckland, the defending champs, were favourites going into the final with Mr Touch, New Zealand rep Peter Walters from Ahipara, calling the shots but Bay of Plenty had the passion and skill to graft out a victory, with great efforts from Steven Wall, Eugene Wihapa and Emmanuel Werehiko.

“Earlier in the day Canterbury women made it four nationals in a row, and Wellington took out the under 21s.”