NGAI TAHU NIGEL NO MATES?

We have been listening to the whispering sands as the tribes and the government gather at Waitangi this weekend. There was a move by the government to consider the notion contained in the fluffy foreshore seabed paper proposal we detailed here. However, we understand that apart from Ngai Tahu, the spurious paper has found little favour among other tribes and there is concern about how the paper came to be leaked. It has lead to a new level of mistrust among many of the parties.

So its probably off the agenda for any meetings between the government and tribal leaders.

We think that there is a fair chance that Ngai Tahu is about to learn that it has fallen out of favour with many powerful tribes. It's to do with a perception that the Southern tribes leaders have become arrogant. And there is growing suspicion that they would rather cut private deals with the Government than look to developing solid, bound- in - law principled solutions that will benefit all Maori.

They have apparently spent close to one million dollars on what the tribal beauracrats call "Strategy and Influence."

Commonly called lobbying.

Money that could have been spent giving our old people a Christmas top up or indeed bolstering the tribal superannuation scheme.

Instead the tribe has spent a million bucks a- hui - ing and a- hongi-ing with politicians and power brokers. Schmoozing. What they have achieved is not clearly obvious to the tribal rank and file. But in Wellington they have succeeded in producing one change. Some tribal leaders and many of the paid lickspittles are now viewed with contempt and suspicion.

While there will be posturing and posing for the cameras at Waitangi, it will be the backrooms where there could be some interesting proposals put forward. Our money is not on Ngai Tahu leading any solution. Sadly - it has become the problem.