Separatism is gaining traction within local government so Hobson’s Pledge has launched a campaign to urge voters to ascertain candidates’ views before voting in the upcoming elections.

The seven-three vote at the Otago Regional Council yesterday to include two voting un-elected tribal appointees on its policy committee shows race-based preferential treatment in action, Hobson’s Pledge spokesman Don Brash said today.

The Otago Regional Council tomorrow should reject a proposal to include voting un-elected tribal appointees on its policy committee, Hobson’s Pledge spokesman Don Brash said today.

Thank you for the support that has flooded in since Wednesday when the New Zealand Maori Council called for an investigation into Hobson’s Pledge by the Human Rights Commission.

In a surprise move last Wednesday, National, New Zealand First, and ACT MPs defeated the Canterbury Regional Council (Ngai Tahu Representation) Bill, a Bill that would have granted un-elected members of Ngai Tahu the right to sit and vote on the Canterbury Regional Council.

Virtue-signalling trumped rational debate when the Hastings District Council voted 10-4 on Thursday to enable four members of the Maori Joint Committee to sit and vote on the council’s four standing committees. The vote went through after an email campaign from Hobson's Pledge encouraging councillors to vote against the motion. Councillors received over 100 emails each.

A claim under the Treaty of Waitangi on spectrum resurfaced this week as Spark worked towards launching superfast fifth generation 5G mobile internet on July 1 next year.

Mount Cook has become Aoraki and Mount Egmont, Taranaki. Now, as part of a Treaty settlement, the New Zealand Geographic Board is considering a proposal by the Maniapoto iwi to have Benneydale renamed “Te Maniaiti” after one of two hills there.

Maori and the Crown are not partners in any sense of the word yet an ideology of Treaty partnership has hijacked the Treaty of Waitangi, Don Brash will explain at a public lecture on Saturday.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s apparent inability to say what Articles one and two of the Treaty of Waitangi said serves as a timely reminder about the simple contents of the Treaty.