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It was former Prime Minister John Key who pushed National to stick with the Maori Party over the controversial iwi participation clauses in the Resource Legislation Amendment Bill, according to commentator Richard Harman.

On Thursday, April 6, 2017, when the National Party and their two friends in the-Maori Party passed the Resource Legislation Amendment Bill, they also triggered a campaign to change the balance of power in Parliament.

The approach by successive governments to Maori economic development is a triumph of hope over understanding and experience. More darkly, it’s the triumph of politics over what is good and just.

John Key’s unexpected resignation from the position of Prime Minister, and the subsequent jostling within the National Party caucus over the past week, offered a glimpse of attitudes of National Party MPs to Hobson’s Pledge issues.

Support for a call for improved iwi participation to get reforms to the Resource Management Act passed shows that the John Key-led government is joined at the hip with the separatist Maori Party, Hobson's Pledge spokesman Don Brash said today.