Labour list MP Kiri Allan should explain why she thinks Maori aren't good enough to foot it with other Kiwis and need separate wards, Hobson’s Pledge spokesperson Casey Costello said today. The Whakatane-based MP spoke out against a petition calling for a district-wide vote on a proposal by the Whakatane District Council to set up a Maori ward or wards.

Councils in Palmerston North, Manawatu, Whakatane, and Western Bay of Plenty have decided to proceed with Maori wards, so it is over to residents in those areas to have their say.

A decision by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council two days ago to establish one or more Maori wards is patronizing nonsense, Hobson’s Pledge spokesman Don Brash said today.

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.

The new Labour leader’s threat of yet-to-be-specified widespread taxes has turned the general election into a close race with voters prioritising financial survival over disgust at years of race-based policy.

A Hobson’s Pledge researcher found in New Zealand’s vast body of legislation an interconnected set of laws, judicial rulings and institutions that has created the race-based administration that we labour under today.

A few weeks ago, The Economist – almost certainly the finest English-language weekly newspaper in the world – carried an editorial and accompanying article describing the consequences of policies designed to improve the lot of Malays in Malaysia, first adopted in 1971 and intended to last for just 20 years.

New Zealand is a nation built on equality, and our equality is based on citizenship, not ethnicity, a full-page advert in today’s Sunday Star Times says.

The policies of Labour’s new leader Jacinda Ardern on Maori seats and a water tax should send a chill through Hobson’s Pledge supporters.

Labour has yet another leader and the Green Party is overrun with a leader’s past indiscretions, what is the National Party about to do? One thing they could do would be to match the promise made by Winston Peters to hold a binding referendum of all voters on the future of the Maori seats.