Loose definitions plague seabed law

"The Government's foreshore and seabed legislation is plagued by language that will fuel the Treaty industry for generations to come," says National Party Maori Affairs spokesman Gerry Brownlee.

"Kiwis should not be conned into thinking that the Government has abandoned 'customary title'. The untested phrase has been substituted for 'ancestral connection' as confirmed by the Prime Minister.

"It's also accepted that 'ancestral connections' could cover virtually the entire coast. 'Ancestral connection' will give Maori "strengthened ability to participate in decision-making."

"It's impossible to argue that does not equate to greater rights for Maori than non-Maori over large sections of our coast.

"That 'ancestral connection' may be decided by the Maori Land Court according to 'tikanga Maori'.

"A search for the word 'tikanga' in Learning Media's on-line Ngata Dictionary returns 106 results."

Among them: code, condition, convention, culture, custom, depend, element, entail, ethic, fashion, formality, must, normally, order, procedure, purport, rights, ritual, style, suppose, trend and trick.

"Tikanga can also mean 'suit' as in 'suit yourself' and in golfing terms it can mean par," says Mr Brownlee.

"How can the Government write reliable, responsible laws when they include words which can be interpreted in a vast number of ways?

"It'll be a bonanza for Treaty lawyers and leave a vacuum that will be filled by extremists and continued judicial activism," says Mr Brownlee.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>