Acrimonious atmosphere at hearings

Press, 10 February 1989, Page 2

Acrimonious atmosphere at hearings

by (

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Parliament 4-1* a nnnirnT/nrCi al IVToflV*!

Public submissions on the controversial Maori Fisheries Bill are being heard in an atmosphere of increasing acrimony between Labour and National members of Parliament after an attack on the Opposition spokesman on Maori Affairs, Mr Winston Peters (Nat., Tauranga), by the parliamentary select committee’s chairman, Mr Ken Shirley (Lab., Tasman).

Mr Shirley has written to the Chief Opposition Whip, Mr Robin Gray, urging the regular and punctual attendance of Opposition members of Parliament. “It is of concern that after four days of hearings Mr Peters has been present only for brief moments and has missed the opportunity to hear many submissions,” Mr Shirley said. “I have suggested that Mr, Peters be replaced if he is unable to attend and remain at the majority of hearings.” Mr Peters described Mr Shirley’s comments as "a combination of ignorance, arrogance and oldfashioned dirty politics.” He said Mr Shirley had handled it in a secret, underhand way because he knew Mr Peters had a solid defence to the baseless allegations. Mr Doug Kidd (Nat., Marlborough), another member of the select committee, described Mr Shirley’s letter as “a minor political prank” which had no basis in Parliament’s rules. Mr Shirley and Mr Peters met by accident yesterday outside Parliament’s press gallery and continued their written claim and counter-claim with a heated verbal exchange.

Mr Peters said after that Mr Shirley had every reason to be nervous about his activities, but that “I am not going to go away.” Mr Shirley said the Maori Fisheries Bill was substantial and complicated and demanded closer scrutiny than Mr Peters — as an Opposition representative on the select committee — was able to give it in the brief time he was present. “I have no doubt that the most recent set of proposals from Mr Palmer will be changed yet again as a result of meetings with Maoris who were never chosen by Maoridom.”

Mr Shirley has written to the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Palmer, asking when the Government will be able to advise the select committee of the substantial changes it plans to make to the bill. Mr Shirley said the select committee would continue to hear submissions on the bill as drafted, but the sooner the Government could advise of its amended bill the better. He had been advised that this would be "soon,” he said. Mr Kidd said Mr Shirley was so incompetent as chairman that he could not get Mr Palmer to say anything. “This whole thing has reached such a farcical stage that the select committee’s secretary actually produced a paper on the bill which had no date on it and he did not know who it was from,” Mr Kidd said. Mr Peters said the select committee was a select joke. “Mr Shirley is a rubber stamp and doormat for Mr Palmer who keeps on changing different sets of proposals but expects us to go on working through the original set,” he said.