The fact that a 2019 a report that outlined a plan for two governments under a tribal committee came to the Government but was never shown to any New Zealand First Cabinet Minister has angered party leader Winston Peters.

Ihumatao is perhaps the most visible race-relations shambles that the next government will have to fix. Located near Auckland Airport, Ihumatao is where activists have protested against Fletcher’s plans to build almost 500 homes on land that it bought from a private owner whose family had owned it since it had been confiscated in 1863 as a consequence of tribal rebellions. 

The election campaign has started and the political parties have published their policies. What follows is where Labour, National, Green, ACT, NZ First, New Conservative, and the Maori Party stand on Hobson’s Pledge issues.

Last month the Minister of Maori Development, Nania Mahuta, announced that the Government intended developing a national plan of action for implementing the highly controversial United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

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.

Former Treaty Minister and National MP Chris Finlayson, who confirmed on Friday that he will leave Parliament before the end of year, says his highlight was reforming the Foreshore and Seabed legislation.

Talk of a referendum on Maori seats was revived, briefly, last week when Acting Prime Minister and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters called for a two-pronged referendum on whether they should be entrenched or should go altogether.

Petitions in both Palmerston North and Kaikoura were validated on Wednesday, which means that all five districts where councils have voted to establish Maori wards will have a vote in May on whether or not those should proceed.

Many who voted for New Zealand First with their party vote will feel deeply betrayed, Hobson’s Pledge spokesman Don Brash said today. 

New Zealand now has a government described by The Australian newspaper as a coalition of the losers put together by New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, who promptly reneged on his campaign pledge for a referendum on whether or not to continue with separate Maori seats.