Barry Soper: Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent on the Government's new foreshore and seabed changes

The Government's unsure if foreshore and seabed changes will spark major backlash.

It's going ahead with plans to make it more difficult for iwi to get customary marine titles, giving them rights over certain coastline activity.

Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper weighed in on the changes - and speculated about the possible reactions. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Barry Soper, Senior political correspondence with US. Hey Barry, good afternoon, Heather.
Do you reckon that there's going to be a big
uproar over this Maca bill.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Well, you know, the Truty Principles Bill saw the Maldi
Party essentially basically enrage a number of people and they
got what tens of thousands of people at Parliament. This
does retrospectively remove some Maldi rights to the Foreshawn Sea bed.
But they knew it was going to happen. I mean,
it was the court that decided, I think wrongly that

(00:31):
the Maori claims going back to eighteen forty was overturned,
saying it was too hard. That's what the court said.
The government said, no, that's the way it should be
because customary title can prevent a lot of things happening
on the foreshore. Now, the last time the government legislated,
of course, against the Foreshaw and seabed changes was in

(00:53):
two thousand and four and that was Helen class government.
And you may remember that Tarry Onaturia she defected from
the Labor Party and started the Maldi Party. Although the
late Tarana I dealt with that. She would agree with
some of the actions of the Maori Party today, but
she in fact led the charge. But you know it

(01:17):
wasn't as radical as what we see in Parliament today.
But certainly it does make a lot of difference to
claims that were made since midway through last year, about
half a dozen claims that were settled. They'll now be overturned.
So look, whenever you interfere with something like this, you're
always going to get some sort of retribution and I

(01:38):
think the government will be expecting some sort of protest,
but we'll have to wait and see. He says it's
going to be through by October this year.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
So you know it doesn't have a long time about
non did you see what happened at Winston Peter's press
conference yesterday?

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Well, you know I found it ridiculous, as if Winston
isn't big enough to handle his own questions. He had
his senior advisor, John Johansson there telling journalists he was
at the Cork Islands celebration of their constitution sixty years
with New Zealand and John Johansson's senior adviser of a

(02:13):
former political lecturer at Victoria University, telling journalists to ask
non political question.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Well, what is it because he was was Winston. Winston
was getting quite a grilling over his relationship with Mark Browns,
which is pretty clearly under a lot of pressure, because
Mark brown sounds like a bit of a pain in
the butt frankly at the minute. And John Johanson piped
up and asked reporters if they had any questions that
aren't about politics.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Unbelievable, and this is the very same man, and I'll
tell you a particular story. You know what the story is.
Back in two thousand and eight in Washington, d C.
We confronted Winston Peters at the Senate. He was seeing

(02:59):
John McCain, and Winston got agro with us about asking
John McCain too many questions. And McCain was telling us
that if he had any position of power in the
United States, then our anti nuclear legislation would not be
a bar to his presidency. Well, not as presidency, he said,

(03:19):
if he had any power. And I went on to
postulate on air that there is a possibility that John
McCain could be the Republican nominee for the presidency. Further
down the track, well, our friend John Johansson came out
publicly and said it just goes to show how much
Barry so open knows about American politics. He would never

(03:40):
be the Republican nominee. Well, as it turned out, he
stood against Barack Obama. Obama won, but McCain certainly he
was right there.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
So is every single time John Johansson does something stuid,
I'll remind him, you're going to you're going to You're
going to tell everyone, just to make sure that you
get him back.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
I quite what happened hands, but you know, sometimes you
should keep your trap shut. That's my view, and a
lot of people would be saying.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
Is not is not lost? Hey, really quickly, where are
we at with that by election?

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Well, we've got five candidates standing in the by election.
But it's really look when you boil it down, it's
really a battle between two old Coe radio hosts, Willie
Jackson and John Tammy Herry Tammany. Harry is the president
of the MALDI Party, he'll be running the campaign for them,
and Willie Jackson is the campaign manager for Pennie. So

(04:37):
it'll be a battle between those two because they also
rans haven't really got to show Hannah Tommocky Bishop Brian's
missus h It'll be it'll be interesting, but look, they
won't be able to attack the common foe and that's
the government, and they won't like to attack each other
because there could be in coalition. So aim by election.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
That's going to bring all the spices. Very thanks, very much,
Barious Sober, senior political correspondent. For more from Hither Duplessy
Allen Drive, listen live to news talks. It'd be from
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