Now is the time to send an email to the mayor and councillors on the Taupo District Council to ask them to vote against a proposal to introduce a Maori ward at an extraordinary council meeting tomorrow.

Signature collecting is well under way after the New Plymouth District Council on July 21 voted to establish a Maori ward. A similar campaign is under discussion in Tauranga after the city council there on August 25 also voted for such a ward. Three other councils are being pushed to have separate voting or representation for members of their communities who may have Maori ancestry.

It is the height of arrogance for New Plymouth District councillors to decide to create a Maori ward in that city, despite 83 percent of those who voted on a similar proposition just five years ago rejecting it, Hobson’s Pledge spokesperson Casey Costello said today.

A two-year inquiry by the Waitangi Tribunal predictably has found that the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 breaches the Treaty of Waitangi and prejudicially affects Maori.

This morning, Auckland residents stood in front of 345 endangered trees on Mount Albert to protect them from zealots at the Tupuna Maunga Authority, which plans to cut them down.

A number of the 1.6 million flyers we delivered nationwide last week prompted complaints to the Human Rights Commission alleging racism. See http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/top/333677/complaints-made-to-hrc-over-leaflets