By Tova O’Brien
The Maori Party and National Government are best friends again, after a tiff over whether the Prime Minister was taking the current Waitangi Tribunal's urgent hearing over water ownership seriously enough.
The tribunal has heard myriad reasons why Maori have ownership rights to water, but today it heard another -because each body of water is guarded by taniwha.
“Taniwha get a bad press in the Pakeha media and they're ridiculed a bit and they're thought of as these silly spiritual things but they're much more than that, they’re much more powerful,” says Maori Council lawyer Felix Geiringer.
But that argument doesn't wash with Winston Peters - he's not Pakeha and he's certainly not media.
“You cannot start making up what Maori thought pre-1840 with these European sociological classes at university and a lot of us Maori understand that, a lot of this is a humbug,” says Mr Peters.
And a lot has changed for Tariana Turia since her symbolic appearance at the tribunal last week.
“We're really please with the outcome,” says Ms Turia.
The upshot of her late night meeting with the Prime Minister was a promise from Mr Key that he won't pass a law overriding Maori water rights and interests.
But Key didn't apologise for stating the obvious - that he could ignore tribunal recommendations, and Ms Turia didn't walk.
“We're sticking with the Government because our people don't actually care who the Government is,” she says.
“They were never going to leave, they were just talking tough,” says Mana's Hone Harawira.
So Ms Turia is staying with the Government and making it clear her party just wants a seat at the table.
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