The Local Government Act requires local authorities to have processes to provide opportunities for Maori to contribute to the decision-making process and to foster the development of Maori capacity to contribute.

I expect Maori to have input into council decision-making and I expect the council to consider those views but what I do not accept is for Maori to have an unqualified right of veto. To elevate the Maori world view above all other's world views is unacceptable.

The Treaty cannot imply a superior form of citizenship. Any argument for different treatment under Article 2 or 3, based purely on an ethnic basis, is fundamentally repugnant.

I also expect councillors to have differences of knowledge, opinions and experience, for it is that, that makes for robust decision-making. Requiring holding hands and singing ‘Kumbaya' is not the way to well-considered outcomes.

We need to be a country where we celebrate our differences, where our diversity enriches us, where ethnicity matters but does not bestow privilege, where all citizens are united equality under the law. If we continue down the path of separatism and don't unite as New Zealanders, we will fail as a country.

R Prince, Tauranga.