“..Goff accused of using race card..”
“..Phil Goff has been accused of sparking racial divisions with an “Orewa-style” speech after he attacked National-Maori Party deals signalling the foreshore and seabed will again be a political football.
Maori Party MP Rahui Katene said Labour was sending out dangerous messages and trying to divide Maori and Pakeha.
“The Maori Party is calling on the public not to fall into the scaremongering trap … in his version of another racially divisive Orewa-type speech,” she said; a reference to former National leader Don Brash’s 2004 speech calling for the abolition of privileges for Maori.
Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples said Mr Goff’s comments were a desperate move. “Let’s hope he doesn’t stir up something when there’s nothing there.”
In his speech to Grey Power in Palmerston North yesterday, Mr Goff said the current foreshore and seabed law was working well and the issue was being reopened by the Government “for politics, and not for principle”.
“It’s hard to see why the country should be put through all the grief just to put a new brand on law that’s working.
Or it might be more than that, in which case the Government should tell us,” he said.
That reversed Labour’s post-election promise not to play politics with the issue.
It had also accepted change was needed to allow Maori to seek customary title to the foreshore and seabed, which had been ruled out by Labour’s law.
Mr Goff said access to the beach was a “birthright” for Maori and Pakeha, though traditional Maori rights and usages should also be respected.
Iwi should be consulted before development occurred..”
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