Billboards reminding voters how much the National-led Government has bent over backwards to satisfy separatist demands went up in Auckland and Wellington today.

The billboards were erected by Hobson’s Pledge, a group fronted by Auckland business manager Casey Costello and former National Party leader Don Brash to make equality of citizenship a key issue for this election.

A Green Party members bill which would end the right for a referendum should a council want a Maori ward was pulled from the member's ballot today, which means MPs could now vote to change the law. Currently, establishing Maori wards in local government can be put to a referendum while general wards are decided on by council alone.

If we were in any doubt that the education system is a powerful force in national politics and cultural values, the Education Council is obliterating that. New Zealanders (when given the chance) have repeatedly expressed no appetite for constitutional reform, co-goverance, compulsory te reo, or a new flag, so now the activists are taking matters into their own hands to entrench their power over our minds.

"He iwi tahi tatou". That was the greeting given to each chief by Governor William Hobson upon signing the treaty on February 6, 1840. It translates to “we are now one people”. At this time in New Zealand I don’t think there is a more powerful statement to be made.

The 150 coastal claims notified over the past week shows that the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 has come back to bite the National Government a few months out from an election, Hobson’s Pledge spokesperson Casey Costello said today.

The total stupidity of the Waitangi Tribunal was full on display last week. I refer, of course, to the finding that Maori re-offending is a Treaty breach. It's bad enough that such reports are written let alone that we taxpayers must fund them.

Strategies used by Corrections to reduce re-offending should be carried out irrespective of ethnicity, Hobson’s Pledge spokesperson Casey Costello said today.

On Thursday, April 6, 2017, when the National Party and their two friends in the-Maori Party passed the Resource Legislation Amendment Bill, they also triggered a campaign to change the balance of power in Parliament.

Today’s passage of the Resource Legislation Amendment Bill is a sad day for democracy and may cost the National Party the election, Hobson’s Pledge leader Don Brash said today.

The National-Maori government – possibly TODAY – are about to pass a bill that amounts to a major surrender of your country to the tribal elites.

Yesterday’s recommendation by the Hastings District Council Maori joint committee against Maori wards for the district reflects messages we are receiving from the public, Hobson’s Pledge spokesperson Don Brash said today.

Since Hobson’s Pledge was launched in September last year I have spoken in various forums. In every instance I have referred to the greeting by Governor Hobson to each chief upon signing the Treaty of Waitangi… “He iwi tahi tatou”.

New Zealanders are inherently egalitarian – it’s part of who we are. It’s not surprising therefore, that we as a society believe in equality before the law. We do not want local government – nor the country – divided by race.

The approach by successive governments to Maori economic development is a triumph of hope over understanding and experience. More darkly, it’s the triumph of politics over what is good and just.

The Labour Party’s sudden opposition to a bill that would enable some Auckland reserve land to be used in a treaty settlement for housing appears to show cracks in the claimed cross-party consensus on treaty settlements.

If there was ever a moment when you thought New Zealand had drifted into the twilight zone, that moment could be when a Minister of the Crown with a straight face said that the Wanganui River had become a person.

It was interesting to see people’s reactions on Maori TV to deputy mayor McInnes proposal to change the name of the Far North Council. They asked “Why?” or suggested she talk to the people or concentrate on fixing infrastructure first and foremost. 

Data obtained under the Official Information Act shows that since November 2008 there have been at least 44 meetings between the former Prime Minister, John Key, the current Prime Minister, Bill English, other senior Ministers, and the Iwi Leaders Group.

Taxpayers have gifted $450k towards the building of a nine-bedroomed private family house, the first of its kind under the government’s “papakainga project” funded through its Whanau Ora fund.

Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei is blissfully unaware of the appalling waste of money and self-serving, like the Auckland Maori Statutory Board, that has come about through a race-based approach to local government, Hobson’s Pledge spokeswoman Casey Costello said today.

If you think the Resource Legislation Amendment Bill that includes iwi participation clauses would be a disaster for New Zealand, please email your MP to ask him or her to vote against it.

The iwi participation clauses included in the Resource Legislation Amendment Bill show that Environment Minister Dr Nick Smith has put his desire not to work with NZ First leader Winston Peters above sound legislation, Hobson’s Pledge spokesperson Casey Costello said today.

He iwi tahi tatou . . . . . we are now one people.

In the early 1980s the talented William James Te Wehi TAITOKO captured the hearts and smiles of New Zealanders.

Billy T James made us laugh, at ourselves, at him, at our differences and our similarities. 

It’s almost exactly 14 years since I first addressed the Orewa Rotary Club, and almost exactly 13 years since I came here as Leader of the National Party to give a speech which, for a time, turned “Orewa” from a place to a date, so that people spoke of “before Orewa” or “after Orewa”, rather than north of Orewa or south of Orewa!

A $1-billion “capacity building” fund plus tribal ownership of freshwater, of all Crown owned river and lake beds, and the water column, are among proposals the Freshwater Iwi Leaders Group took around the country in 2015 for tribal ratification.

Few other politicians have done more to create conditions ripe for the destruction of racial equality

Gone-by-Monday Prime Minister John Key shrewdly picked a retirement date amenable for collecting one of those New Year’s honour knighthoods he personally reinstated.

His timing is opportune for him, not least because of the gathering catastrophe for New Zealand democracy he has engineered but can now slough parliamentary accountability for.

PUBLIC MEETING – TAURANGA           22 November 2016

SPEECH – Casey Costello

This speech was delivered at Tauranga on November 22nd, 2016

He iwi tahi tatou………….at this time in New Zealand I don’t think there is a more powerful statement to be made.

Hobson’s Pledge has been established with total commitment to New Zealand’s history of equality – setting precedent for inclusion and unity.

New Zealand’s Bill of Rights Act, intended to protect us from discrimination on the grounds of race, has been left in tatters by the very lawyers tasked by Parliament with oversight of those rules. Intellectually dishonest or indoctrinated? Whichever the answer, Crown Law’s Constitutional and Human Rights Team should be sacked and replaced with lawyers capable of taking a principled stand.

Support for a call for improved iwi participation to get reforms to the Resource Management Act passed shows that the John Key-led government is joined at the hip with the separatist Maori Party, Hobson's Pledge spokesman Don Brash said today.

Kiwis have always disliked and distrusted Unearned Privilege. Our collective psyche tolerates individual success, and, if decently handled by that individual, it will get respect and even quiet admiration. But the essential Kiwi commitment to fairness and equality is never far below the surface. It is underpinned by a belief that if a breach occurs, there are remedies. Either the “tall poppy” syndrome, or the democratic process, or both, kick in.

By Sarah Taylor

One Pure, owned by Hong Kong based corporation Hon Lung International, with the capital and expertise to build a massive water bottling facility, felt the need to approach Hawke’s Bay tribal entity Ngati Paarau^[i]  for “support and partnership ^[ii]” in their endeavour. Why?

By Don Brash

What on earth is racist or bigoted about arguing that all citizens should have equal political rights, Hobson's Pledge founder Don Brash wrote in Elocal magazine's November edition.

Hobson's Pledge, launched four weeks ago, takes its name from the words spoken by Governor William Hobson at the February 6, 1840, signing of the treaty of Waitangi, namely "we are now one people".

By David Round

Prime Minister John Key is indeed correct that most New Zealanders do want to live in a harmonious New Zealand but he was wrong about just about everything else he said in response to the launch of Hobson’s Pledge.

By Andy Oakley

Recently on her Villainesse blog, Lizzie Marvelly suggested she could write a thesis on the many. many problems with Hobson’s Pledge.

By Mike Butler

The appearance of the words “Don Brash” and “Maori” in the same sentence is like a red rag to a bull for New Zealand’s politically correct mainstream media. 

The launch of the new lobby group called Hobson’s Pledge on September 28, 2016, generated wide media hostility to criticism of government policy on separate Maori seats, treaty settlements, and race-based affirmative action.

Hobson’s Pledge has, in only two days, achieved an astounding level of interest resulting in mainstream media rallying to vilify Don Brash and hiding behind racist taunts to avoid having a real conversation, spokesperson Casey Costello said today.

Nine years of a National Party Government pandering to separatist demands will be an issue voters will consider in next year’s general election, Auckland business manager Casey Costello said today.

By Mike Butler

The document that is most likely the final English draft from which the Treaty of Waitangi was translated into Maori will quietly be buried in archives when a new exhibition of “iconic constitutional documents” opens next year at the National Library opposite Parliament Buildings. 

A New Zealand academic of Maori, Irish and French descent believes the pendulum has swung too far in redressing Maori grievances.

Dr Brian McDonnell, a senior lecturer in film studies at Massey University, says New Zealand's polite middle ground has become too fawning and the government too accommodating to the shrill cries of extremists.

Democracy, which means “rule by the people”, has Greek origins. It arose in response to the abuse of power by rulers. In essence there are four key elements to a well-functioning democracy – free and fair elections, the active participation of citizens in political and civic life, the protection of human rights, and a commitment to the rule of law – to ensure that all citizens are treated equally.

It would be a constitutional disgrace if Auckland Council delegated the adoption of the Unitary Plan to its Development Committee. According to an NBR report the Council is considering delegating the decisions to its Development Committee, which includes members of the Independent Maori Statutory Board, who are unelected by and therefore unaccountable to the wider community.

The feeling of having been totally out-manoeuvred has become a common sensation amongst Auckland regional ratepayers – and they don’t know half of what is going on. This powerlessness extends to some of the well-meaning City Councillors who thought they were being elected to work for the people; they now see themselves as fall guys, taking the rap for conniving bureaucrats, greedy iwi and unscrupulous politicians.

It may surprise many New Zealanders that a growing number of Maori are fed up with the Waitangi Tribunal and the entire Treaty Gravy train. There is a stereotype of Maori collecting millions of dollars in settlement money and living the easy life. The reality is very different. Here are a few facts.