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.

A petition that got a blogger fired from his job after he criticised the He Puapua plan for two governments under tribal monitoring, plus a spoof video ridiculing a Maori Party MP, raises the question whether a Maori Party co-leader started it.

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.

Please sign our new petition to welcome a visit of the replica of Captain James Cook's ship Endeavour to New Zealand in October.

“Words” spoken between Crown/Maori Relations Minister Kelvin Davis, Finance Minister Grant Robertson, and Environment Minister David Parker on Monday prompted Stuff reporter Jo Moir to surmise on how the battle lines are drawn between coalition partners on water rights.

Earlier this month a public wharf on Matakana Island, off the Tauranga Coast, was blockaded with barbed wire and fence posts. A sign placed at the front of the Panepane wharf read, “This is the tribal boundary of Tauwhao, Te Ngare, Tamawhariua, Tauairi, and Tuwhiwhia.” It was in the name of “Bob Rolleston, Kaumatua, Hapu Elder”. The sign said, “Bugga Off.”