I have just heard Kim Hill interviewing Professor Idelbar Avelar of Spokane University on corruption in Brazil - gross corruption so endemic that it seems almost half of all members, government and the bureaucracy, are involved.

Surely the collusion between the National Party and the Maori Party, the consultation with little or no public participation, is a form of corruption. By affording special treatment to Maori it surely corrupts democracy in New Zealand by not granting equal rights to all citizens irrespective of ethnicity and creates a form of apartheid. If the special treatment is given because Maori are considered inadequate and need and deserve special treatment it displays a patronising attitude that thinking Maori should resent and repudiate.

It is time the whole population became involved and individuals reflected on this state of affairs. It is also time that the derogatory reports and snide comments about the Hobson's Pledge movement and the disparaging of Don Brash made by the media were scrutinised by the public and seen as the biased, politically-motivated agenda that it is.

The public should know that the aim of Hobson's Pledge is to promote awareness of the erosion of democracy that is now occurring. There is no time for complacency and delay.

B Johnson, Omokoroa.