The absurd Treaty of Waitangi claims being made by iwi leaders for the ownership of pubic good resources that are the foundation of life itself are driving New Zealand towards a race relations tipping point.
The current claims laid by Maori are not only outrageous but appear to be in breach of the 2006 law change that prohibits any new historic Treaty of Waitangi claim from being lodged with the Waitangi Tribunal after the 1st of September 2008.
Subsection (1) of Section 6AA of the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 states: 'after 1 September 2008 no Maori may submit a claim to the Tribunal that is, or includes, a historical Treaty claim”.
For the sake of the future of this country, it is time to put this fixation with race behind us. New Zealand should become a nation where equality before the law is a defining feature.
The government has given the Maori Party $4 million to spend on convincing New Zealanders that a Treaty based constitution is in the best interests of the country.
Plans are now well advanced for the replacement of New Zealand's present constitution with a new version that enshrines the Treaty of Waitangi and the Maori seats. The strategy being used by the government is similar to that successfully employed over the foreshore and seabed: they have set up a review process using a rigged panel. They plan to consult extensively with Maori through a series of Hui. Other ‘arranged' meetings will take place over the next twelve months. But high profile open public meetings, that could generate controversial publicity of the sort the government does not want, will NOT be held, as they plan to keep this review under the radar of public opinion as well.
If the Maori Party is successful in orchestrating a new written Treaty-based constitution, unelected activist judges are likely to be in control. That means that if the National Party rolls over - as it did over the foreshore and seabed - to let the Maori Party hijack our constitution, New Zealand will be condemned to a future of racial division that will forever confer superior rights and status on those who claim Maori heritage, while non-Maori New Zealanders will become second class citizens in their own country.

Rob Colmore, Hairini.