The water claim: there are times when the best thing a dame can do is get out of the way

The intro to one item in the Herald today somewhat understates the position – at least insofar as Alf has firm thoughts on the matter.

It says (here) –

Chief Justice’s past links with Maori Council have ministers ill at ease

Your hard-working MP for Eketahuna North is downright stroppy on the matter.

The intro leads readers into a good piece from Fran O’Sullivan which points out that Dame Sian Elias successfully acted for the Maori Council on several high-profile Treaty claims against the Crown in the 1980s through to the mid-1990s.

That invites the question –

Should Chief Justice Sian Elias recuse herself from the upcoming Supreme Court hearing on the Maori water rights claim?

The Maori King didn’t piss around – he made plain who owns the water (and it isn’t the Crown)

Waikato-Tainui accepted a co-governance deal – but now they want the lot.

Alf must have missed something somewhere about this water malarkey.

First, he was led to believe Maori claims to water were something to do with rights, not actual ownership.

Second, he was led to believe Pita Sharples would not attend the national hui set up by that Maori king bloke in the Waikato.

Just a few weeks ago the Waitangi Tribunal – urging the Government to halt the partial sale of Mighty River Power – said the partial privatisation would affect the Government’s ability to make redress to Maori rights in water.

It called for an urgent national hui to find solutions to questions around how Maori rights over fresh water are recognised.

The Government duly delayed the Mighty River Power float until next March or April.

It said it would consult iwi associated with waterways used by Mighty River Power but rejected any pan-Maori approach to settle water claims.

But Maori obviously intend to up the ante in their campaign to control all our water before they move on to take control of the wind and the air we breath.