On page 4 of The Weekend Sun March 4, the Attorney-General, Chris Finlayson, gave us his take on the truth about the Government's Marine and Coastal Area Bill.
He said 'The chief concern of a number of submitters was, that allowing customary title to be recognised by an order in council (that is, by cabinet rather than parliament of the courts) could leave open the possibility of back door deals done by further Governments.
That is why we are amending the Bill to say any negotiated agreement to recognise customary title, will have to be passed by an Act of Parliament.
This means it will be subject to full parliamentary and public scrutiny.”
The above Chris Finlayson, now Attorney-General (of the Chief Legal Officer of our Nation) is a lawyer, who once negotiated for Ngai Tahu, (the South Island Maori tribe) and he is actually only a list MP (not voted in by the people).
As such, he is now negotiating for the Government, so is it any wonder that we feel threatened. After all there were 4500 odd submissions to this Bill, but with a Maori Select Committee, it is still going ahead.
But, if you read his statement again you will understand why.
The very last sentence puts Parliamentary (desire) ahead of public scrutiny, and shows up his, and National's true colours in this matter.
We come second! Just like we could with any ‘future Governments'.
No wonder we don't trust them any more!
R McGuinness, Tauranga.