Six weeks ago, when the leaders of both the National and ACT parties drew attention to a Government-commissioned plan, titled He Puapua, to establish two governments in New Zealand by 2040, one for Maori and one for everyone else, there was name-calling and side-stepping.

After reviewing our campaign over the past year in light of the general election result, Hobson’s Pledge members chose to continue as a lobby group.

New Zealand now has a government described by The Australian newspaper as a coalition of the losers put together by New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, who promptly reneged on his campaign pledge for a referendum on whether or not to continue with separate Maori seats.

Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson acting as the Crown on Thursday offered northern Hawke's Bay tribe Ngati Pahauwera a deal on a sizeable part of Hawke Bay under his Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011.