Foreshore negotiations to be kept quiet

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Negotiations on legislation to replace the Foreshore and Seabed Act won't move into the public arena until agreement is reached with Maori, Prime Minister John Key says.

The Government said last year it would repeal the Act but not until an alternative had been worked out.

Labour has accused it of working in secret with Maori groups and says it should reveal what it is talking about.

But Mr Key said today progress was being made and it wasn't the right time to go public with details.

"There's not much point in me having public discussions if it's not going to progress with the support of Maori," he said at his post-cabinet press conference.

"That's where we're at... we're working our way through that."

Mr Key met the iwi leaders group at Waitangi last week to discuss replacement legislation and said the talks were useful, informative and largely successful.

"Within Maoridom you can't even say the iwi leaders group speak for all Maori, but they do speak for a big chunk of them," he said.

The group of about 30 leaders represents the largest iwi with the biggest economic base.

Mr Key acknowledged there were different views and demands within Maoridom, some of them extreme, and there were "deeply political" relationships involved.

"All you can do, in the end, is try to get a result that is acceptable to the majority," he said.

"I don't think you'll ever get unanimous support."

The previous Labour government introduced the Foreshore and Seabed Act, which put all of it in Crown ownership to avoid the possibility of courts ruling that some customary titles could convert to private ownership.

It caused outrage among Maori and Tariana Turia left Labour to form the Maori Party.

Mr Key said the closed door negotiations shouldn't worry anyone.

"What would be concerning to New Zealanders would be if their bottom lines weren't incorporated in any solution," he said.

"I think their bottom lines are quite clear - universal access to the beaches and a position that doesn't put them in a worse financial position than they should otherwise be."

Mr Key would not be drawn on details of possible alternatives to the Act.

He said co-management had been effective "from Bastion Point right through" but that did not mean it should happen everywhere.

Attorney-General Chris Finlayson is in charge of the negotiations to work out an alternative.

Mr Key said on Saturday in his Waitangi Day speech that he hoped the new legislation would be introduced to Parliament this year.

- NZPA