Fox News

NZH reports deal on foreshore confiscation. I've just seen the pictures on TV of Cullen cuddling up to the Ngati Porou leadership. This Iwi have been portrayed as kupapa (traitors) for their historic and continuing collaboration with the Crown - and this exercise will merely confirm that status in the minds of many observers. Their thinking that they can get more out of the Crown by breaking solidarity with other tribes is unprincipled and the outcome highly questionable. If they think they will get anything substantially more than the "White Man's Touch" as the Crown determined property test for their own land, and the "White Man's Word" as the Crown determined process of over-riding that property test then they are in dreamland. And if by a divine miracle they do get anything more than that then it automatically destroys all credibility the government has in having passed the raupatu in the first place. They keep voting for Horomia after all, what does that say about their political acumen?

On that score I hope Derek Fox kicks his arse. He got within 695 votes last time he stood - and will be odds on to take the seat off Horomia should he be nominated by the Maori Party. The party's nominations from what I've gathered:

Candidate Selection Progress

Hauraki - Waikato
Selection hui were held over a two week period in Pukekohe, Hamilton , Matamata, Huntly, Manurewa, Paeroa and Raglan. On 27 November, Angeline Greensill was elected as the candidate to contest Hauraki-Waikato for the Maori Party.

Te Tai Tonga
Nominations opened on the 17th December 2007.. Nominations close on the 14th January 2008 (next Monday).. Selection Hui will be held from the 10th - 15th February 2008

Ikaroa Rawhiti
Nominations opened on the 1 January 2008. Nominations close on the 31st January 2008. Selection Hui will be held from 2-8 March 2008.

The Maori seats could all go their way if they continue to conduct themselves with vigour and independence over the next months.

As for a National Party - Maori Party deal, yes it is possible, but only if the foreshore confiscation law is repealed. That is the deal-maker/deal-breaker. As my co-blogger mentioned this morning and as I have stated many times since the issue erupted in 2003: public access to all foreshore and seabed regardless of what property status it has is what is important to the public. Confiscating every square millimetre off Maori whilst protecting Pakeha rights in the same category so that Pakeha can get 80% of aquaculture areas and can build marinas etc. which over-rides Maori property, customary and other rights will never be accepted because it is unconstitutional, unjust and racist. We didn't need the UN to tell us that in their report because we already know, the government knows, Maori know, everyones knows: a Pakeha-run government can and will screw over Maori for as little a reason as mere bureaucratic convenience. If Ngati Porou wants to attempt to bargain with a regime that treats them as abos instead of boycotting them and returning a staunch MP who will keep those bastards honest - then more fool them. They are playing the divide-and-rule game by which all Crown governments have successfully managed to undermine the autonomy and protection that the Treaty afforded the communities that consented to it.

As for the Nats - it is consistent with their property rights agenda and their pragmatism that they take that Maori Party deal. Key must keep the red necks in his caucus in check to achieve it. Not an easy task with characters like McCully and Nick Smith etc. etc. lurking in the shadows waiting for their opportunity to stumble out, voice their 1950s reactionary and racist venom and promptly lose the un-lose-able election.

---------UPDATE 6:30pm---------
In the government press release Cullen's quoted as commending "the good faith and sincerity with which Ngāti Porou have approached these negotiations" - which others might well characterise as a commendation of their ability to sell-out - to do their bidding, to play their game, to tow their line, to dance to their tune and fulfil their role as a bit player in Labour's manipulations of the Maori electorate. Praise from Caesar is an indictment indeed; when the world stands against that man and his greed. To the negotiators they would doubtlessly think they are getting a good a deal as they can, but the timing especially is all carefully choreographed to Labour's agenda of "good news" leading up to Waitangi Day.

On Radio New Zealand I'm hearing Tariana Turia reminding Dr Mahuika (a lead negotiator for Ngati Porou) of his original opposition to the confiscation bill and that negotiating with the Crown is a reversal of that policy. (Of course by accepting the Crown's bullshit framework inside of the Act breaks the solidarity against it.) Cullen says the agreement will be put into legislation - which will be a publicly dissected humiliation rather than any re-assertion of Ngati Porou mana - because we will all see just how little they get and how much they think they are worth. And because Horomia is tangata whenua we'll see how this deal pans out for him in his constituency as it is presumed by him and Labour that it will be seen as him "delivering" and "walking the talk" and all those other stupendous waffly jabbered buzz-words that he spouts. And who, upon hearing Dr Mahuika's comments on One News tonight about the Maori Party, would say he is anything other than a Labour Party stooge?

So what have they signed up to? - I'll post the critique once I've gone through the two documents issued today and available as word doc's on the govt. website.