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.

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.

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!

Models for the allocation of fresh water were under discussion at a meeting between Prime Minister Bill English and the Iwi Chairs Forum on Friday at Waitangi.

Iwi leaders want allocation of a proportion of water in each catchment to iwi as well as direct involvement in decision making.  See http://www.maniapoto.iwi.nz/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/FINAL-Regional-Iwi-Hui-Presentation-July-2016.pdf

The Government wants to deal with this demand by shuffling the responsibility to local government.

We’ve reached the limits of what Government can do, the limits of Government grants and programmes, Prime Minister Bill English told Ratana members on Monday.

He was attending annual commemorations at the group’s settlement south of Wanganui. The event kicks off the political year.

Prime Minister Bill English absolutely made the right decision in staying away from Waitangi’s Te Tii marae for the powhiri, according to Ngapuhi leader David Rankin, one of many who spoke out in support of the decision.

The attendance of New Zealand's Prime Minister at that marae has been a vexed issue every year, with John Key making the decision not to go last year after being refused speaking rights and threats of protests.