A $100 million grant for marae from the Provincial Growth Fund announced by the MP struggling to return to Parliament is a stunning display of race-based pork-barrelling by a party that normally courts the one-law-for-all vote.

At last, a political leader has asserted that everyone in New Zealand owns the water, and that was National Party Leader Judith Collins.

Ihumatao is perhaps the most visible race-relations shambles that the next government will have to fix. Located near Auckland Airport, Ihumatao is where activists have protested against Fletcher’s plans to build almost 500 homes on land that it bought from a private owner whose family had owned it since it had been confiscated in 1863 as a consequence of tribal rebellions. 

Last Monday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she had “listened to Kiwis” and will make Matariki a public holiday from 2022 if re-elected. The Kiwis she had listened to were the 30,000 who had signed two petitions calling for Matariki to become a public holiday. Launched by Action Station and New Zealand Republic, these online petitions were handed to Labour MP Paul Eagle on Friday night, July 24. There were also the 630 people polled by the Labour Party’s research firm, UMR, in July, who backed a Matariki holiday.

Signature collecting is well under way after the New Plymouth District Council on July 21 voted to establish a Maori ward. A similar campaign is under discussion in Tauranga after the city council there on August 25 also voted for such a ward. Three other councils are being pushed to have separate voting or representation for members of their communities who may have Maori ancestry.

The election campaign has started and the political parties have published their policies. What follows is where Labour, National, Green, ACT, NZ First, New Conservative, and the Maori Party stand on Hobson’s Pledge issues.

A two-year inquiry by the Waitangi Tribunal predictably has found that the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 breaches the Treaty of Waitangi and prejudicially affects Maori.

Under no circumstances whatsoever should the Waikato tribe – or any tribe – hold to ransom a third of the country's population, Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones told a select committee on Thursday.

Electoral race-baiting clicked up a gear yesterday when Maori Party co-leader John Tamihere smeared “Pakeha” as "asymptomatic racists".

The cartoon above, courtesy of Garrick Tremain, shows the absurdity of the Maori Party’s attempt to win support, that is by having councils investigate and remove colonial statues.

Protests in New Zealand last weekend at the killing in the United States of a black man by police show “a rising tide of resentment, principally from young Maori conditioned into believing they are victims of white supremacy”.

A former senior MP once commented that in his view a one-law-for-all type political party could draw enough voter support to get it over the five percent threshold into Parliament. We would be keen to know where the new National Party leader, Todd Muller, stands on Hobson’s Pledge issues:

Have the medical schools gone too far by favouring Maori and Polynesian applicants with average grades over others with exceptional grades?

The Independent Police Conduct Authority has confirmed what we have been trying to tell the Prime Minister, that roadblocks and checkpoints established by Maori groups without Police permission and supervision are unlawful.

A total of 4900 people have signed our petition against iwi vigilantes illegally setting up highway checkpoints. The petition was launched before ANZAC weekend

Gang members helping iwi stop people breaking lock-down rules at checkpoints finally got a reaction from Police Minister Stuart Nash but only after he was directly questioned by the Epidemic Response Committee on Tuesday.

It appears that Maori New Zealanders are above the law, and that the Government is relaxed about that, Hobson’s Pledge spokesman Don Brash said today.

Are we being conned by the treaty industry is a short book that highlights 24 myths and 89 Acts of Parliament that have fostered a culture of racial preferment in New Zealand. It could be required reading while we are all under house arrest for the next month.

What stood out in former Labour MP John Tamihere’s opening salvo in his bid to return the Maori Party to Parliament by winning Tamaki Makaurau Maori seat was his unashamed twisting of the meaning of the Treaty of Waitangi. He said:

The New Zealand Maori Council is talking up a possible bid to return to the High Court to get a sympathetic judge to declare that “Maori” indeed own all the water in New Zealand.

A lie about women and children allegedly burnt to death in a Waikato church that they sought refuge in was repeated in a news report on Friday.

National Party leader Simon Bridges’ apparent intention to ally with the Maori Party undermines his weak concessions to “one law for all” voters announced during the week.

Now that we know that the general election will take place on September 19, we thought it timely to reconfirm that Hobson’s Pledge stands for a better New Zealand committed to equality. We believe that:

This year 2020 comes with a wave of issues that add to the rising tide of racial preferment that is being forced upon us.

There are two pieces of legislation wending their way through Parliament designed to further entrench the crazy notion that the Treaty of Waitangi created an obligation on governments nearly 200 years later to treat anybody with a Maori ancestor in some kind of preferential way. They are the Public Service Bill and the Education and Training Bill, both sponsored by Chris Hipkins, who is both Education and Public Service Minister.