Fishing row becomes racial issue

Press, 16 June 1988, Page 1

Fishing row becomes racial issue

By

OLIVER RIDDELL,

in Wellington

The issue of Maori fishing claims became the issue of racial conflict when Parliament debated yesterday the Waitangi Tribunal decision on the Muriwhenua fisheries claim.

The special debate lasted hours. “Race is the great issue of the day,” said the senior Cabinet Minister to speak, the Minister of Overseas Trade, Mr Moore. "It is a time of maximum opportunity and maximum peril; it is not an issue for future generations but for our generation. “If we get this issue wrong, whatever we have done on the other issues will be pointless,” he said. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bolger, criticised the Government for having brought the Maori fishing and racial issues to this point without being able to say what principles would guide it from now on. He called on the Government to halt all hearings by the Waitangi Tribunal, as to let it go on to further matters would only heighten the expectations and fears it was arousing. “Take time out and provide a breathing space to find a solution,” Mr Bolger said. Mr Simon Upton (Nat., Raglan) accused the Government of being way out in front of the public on Maori issues, working at a speed that was itself a cause of fear and tension. The Government had no mandate for what it was doing and it had to acquire a mandate before proceeding or be for ever held responsible for the consequences, he said. But the Minister for StateOwned Enterprises, Mr Prebble,

said the Government did have a mandate.

This mandate lay in the undertakings given to the Maoris almost 150 years ago in the Treaty of Waitangi and from Government policies announced to and endorsed by voters in the last two elections, he said. Mr lan McLean (Nat., Tarawera) said there had been talk of violence and although he discounted that the call by Mr Bolger for delay and a breathing space should be taken up. “Radicals from the Right and the Left, some who claimed to have Maori ancestors, seek vio-

lerice but most people reject that, while realising the grievances of the Maori cannot be left to roll for another 100 years,” he said.

Mr Moore said, “Race is the nuclear bomb of New Zealand politics and there will be no winners.”

He was appalled at those members who were exploiting the racial issue. All through the South Pacific region there was a renaissance of indigenous peoples — in New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji. To ignore all the Maori statistics and the cost of failing to address them would change the nature of New Zealand politics.

“We need not slit our wrists as a country and bleed to death by failing to address them,” Mr Moore said.

Mr Bolger said the guiding principle in dealing with Maori rights had to be that New Zealand was one country with one law for everyone. He urged calmness and rationality. This was echoed by speakers from Labour and National.

The Minister of Fisheries, Mr Moyle, said some members had already made extravagant and inflammatory remarks Two Opposition members from Northland, Mr John Banks (Nat., Whangarei) and Mr Ross Meurant (Nat., Hobson), who had earlier criticised the' decision, did not speak in the debate.

Further debate, page 6