Tariana Turia

Wellington, Sept 2 NZPA - Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia has accused ACT MP David Garrett of using racial division to win votes after he criticised aspects of National's changes to the Foreshore and Seabed Act.

Mr Garrett has been in Northland speaking about foreshore and seabed issues and said ACT opposed Labour's 2004 legislation because there was no right for Maori to take property claims to court.

But he said recent changes agreed to by National and the Maori Party would take it too far in the opposite direction.

The agreement means the foreshore and seabed will always remain a public domain and existing freehold titles will continue, but Maori will retain a right to seek customary title either through direct negotiations with the Crown or through court processes -- although the threshold will be high.

Mr Garrett, the party's Maori affairs spokesman, told a public meeting that that could lead to the public losing free access to some beaches. He claimed he had heard of cases where pakeha had already been told to clear off beaches in Northland.

Mrs Turia said Mr Garrett was playing the race card in a bid to create division and win votes.

"I'm tired of the ACT Party playing games at the expense of unity or the responsibility to address issues of justice," she said today.

"These tactics play on the fears and prejudices that are held by the few."

Mrs Turia said Mr Garrett would search for a Maori who might deny access, "but I'm surprised that he doesn't take the same line of attack in hunting out those non-Maori who do not allow access to their private beaches".

She said unity was needed rather than division.

Mr Garrett rejected Mrs Turia's claims about playing the race card and said he was pointing out downfalls in the legislation, which will soon be introduced to Parliament.

"What ACT does not agree with is National's move to repeal Labour's Foreshore and Seabed Act and replace it with a new law that proposes that the Government, in the form of the attorney-general, can decide whether iwi should be allowed customary title or not," he said.

"This is of grave concern as it is not a fair and transparent process, and can be manipulated by successive governments to further their own political advantage."

Mr Garrett said ACT would be supportive if cases went through the court process and customary title was granted for an area of land, but not the creation of legislation "which will allow secret back-room deals to be done away from public scrutiny".