Coastal rights way a dangerous path

Labour list MP Shane Jones says Attorney General Chris Finlayson is treading a dangerous path with his suggestion Maori should negotiate with him for customary rights rather than go through the courts.

The Maori Party has criticised Labour's Foreshore and Seabed Act for stopping the courts looking at foreshore claims.

Mr Finlayson told TV3 on the weekend that while his suggested reform of the Act reinstates access to the courts, he'd encourage iwi to talk to him instead.

He also agreed iwi who got customary title could lease the coast to outsiders for resort development.

Mr Jones says that's an alarming prospect.

“I just think it's really unwise before the public hui are over the minister is gaily announcing he doesn’t know what seabed customary title is but he’s more than keen for all and sundry to traipse up to his office and they’ll make it up in some sort of patchwork nature around the coastline. I fear the coastline will end up with this quilt of uneven, half baked, hotchpotch deals,” he says.

Chris Finlayson is holding a consultation meeting in south Auckland this evening, and he'll be in Gisborne for hui and public meetings tomorrow.

EDEN PARK DRESSING ROOM SHAME RECALLED

An Anglican Bishop has described the Maori rugby team's shame at being told to throw a game against South Africa.

Muru Walters was the 22-year-old fullback for the New Zealand Maori team against the touring 1956 Springboks.

He says before the game in Auckland, Maori affairs minister Ernest Corbett told the team if it won, New Zealand would never be invited to tour South Africa again.
Bishop Walters says the message contributed to the Maori team's 37-nil trouncing.

“That was a pretty destructive message to deliver before a game and a crowd of about 61,000 and it ripped the guts out of the spirits of our team. I was only a young person then but I saw my experienced friends just throw in the towel. It was an amazing transformation. Senior leaders capitulated to government direct interference,” Bishop Walters says.

He says in the centenary of Maori rugby, Maori deserve an apology for the way they were treated during the apartheid era.

MAORI BUSINESS URGED TO NETWORK

The Ministry of Maori development is encouraging Maori businesses to find ways to work more closely together.

Te Puni Kokiri hosted a Maori business network dinner bringing together a range of business owners working in community development, security, animation and wine companies.

Martin Mariassouce, TPK's commercial development manager says as Maori business expands beyond fishing, farming and forestry, business owners often find themselves isolated from other Maori.

He says Maori businesses should make an effort to find other Maori suppliers for the goods and services they need.

WHANAU ORA WILL CREATE STAFF DEMAND

The chief executive of Hawkes Bay's largest Maori heath provider says Whanau Ora scheme will opens up opportunities for trained Maori health workers.

Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga already employs more than 150 people, and it's holding seminars to encourage other Maori to consider health careers.

Alayna Watene says the new method of integrated service delivery to Maori families will create a demand for professional health and welfare workers with cultural competence.

“There's going to be a huge workforce required that is culturally and professionally safe in their practice. It’s no longer the days when you can send well meaning nannies and aunties and uncles out to advise and give counsel to whanau with multiple complex,” Ms Watene says.

CAPTAIN CONFIRMS BISHOP’S TEAM NOBBLING STORY

The captain of the 1956 Maori All Blacks has confirmed the team was told to lose its game against the touring Springboks.

Some rugby journalists have questioned a claim by fullback Muru Walters that the minister of Maori affairs told the team to throw the match for the good of rugby.

But Hapi Potae from Ngati Porou and Tainui remembers the team manager, Ralph Love, confirming the minister's message.

He says its effect was seen on the field, where the Maori's woeful tackling and lack of attack saw them go down 37-nil.

“That game in Eden Park was a disgrace. I actually felt so embarrassed that I went over and crossed from Eden Park over to the railway line and it was embarrassing.

Mr Potae says the reasons for the defeat were not something team members liked to talk about, and certainly not to Pakeha.

NEW POLICY COULD DRAIN FUNDS FROM OLD PROGRAMMES

Labour leader Phil Goff says good social service providers will be axed to provide money for Whanau Ora.

Mr Goff says the lack of transparency around the new Maori-oriented health and welfare delivery programme indicates poor planning by the government.

He says it's becoming clear Whanau Ora is about politics and making the Maori Party look good rather than delivering real change to Maori families.

MOA AND MORE BONES BRING BLESSINGS TO DEVONPORT

Auckland iwi combined today to bless human remains found during foundation work for a new navy museum at Devonport's Torpedo Bay.

The Historic Places trust says last week's find of koiwi as well as moa bones, an adze head and other artifacts indicate Maori occupation of the site more than 500 years ago, making it one of the earliest sites found.

Eru Thompson from Tainui says kaumatua from Ngati Whatua, Ngati Paoa and Ngai Tai where joined by officers from the navy at the blessing ceremony.

He says the navy was happy to stop the excavation of an area which is near where the navigator Kupe is thought to have landed about 900 AD.