Highlighting Government double-speak

The National Party is so disturbed about Government deception on the seabed and foreshore issue that it is undertaking a nationwide newspaper advertising campaign on Tuesday, the opening day of Parliament, to highlight this.

National Party leader Don Brash said the quarter page advertisements, in practically all the country's daily newspapers, will point out the difference between assurances given by Prime Minister Helen Clark and legal submissions made to the Waitangi Tribunal hearings by the Government's top legal advisor, Solicitor-General Terence Arnold, QC.

Ms Clark maintained Labour's foreshore and seabed proposals were about "acting in the best interests of all New Zealanders", but the Solicitor-General had confirmed that the proposals opened up a new customary title based on ethnicity.

"This is exactly what we have been warning the country about," Dr Brash said. "We believe there should be one law for all; that we are all New Zealanders with the same rights and obligations under the law.

"Labour should have acted as it planned initially: to legislate for Crown ownership, rather than create another quicksand that will suck up vast legal costs and create never-ending division that will continue for generations, long after this Government has gone.

"I invite all New Zealanders to read the Solicitor-General's comments in these advertisements and to ponder the implications," Dr Brash said.

The advertisements will also draw attention to a new website www.foreshore.co.nz http://www.foreshore.co.nz/ which details the fishhooks in Labour's plans.

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