Kind have to agree,, its future that counts and we as a nation are being drawn into something we had no control over.

What are you referring to LAP?

smudge wrote: What are you referring to LAP?

Posturing by the Greens to align themselves with Labour thus enhancing potential future alliances?

Its a pity the rank and file Maori don't get to see the billions of money and assets owned by the various tribes, then maybe some of the issues that have arisen would be sorted out, in the days when we could joke between each other without repercussions , a good Maori mate of mine said that he and his family didn't see and never would any of the compensation the tribe had been paid out, we laughed about it but then humans are human all over the world, some work and exist, some are lucky and also skilled and get wealthy and some are corrupt and take advantage of their own people , has happened for thousands of years, is happening now and probably always will.

TJM . Nail on the head !!! I have many maori friends and family , most don't care about handouts , but those who do go quiet real quick when i ask " what or how much in actual $$ do you and your family acually get to help you from these deals ? truthfull answer is $0 .. helping with poverty etc my fn  ae  ... There are a few and i am sure it is only a few who are REALLLY benifiting from whats going on , and i believe some are probably involved in running this country ..Yes there are some in forestry , fishing , and a few other ventures on wages  , but the real $$$ they or there family  are never  going to see or benifit from ..

Coastbusters wrote: For those who say that the British and NZ settlers made NZ what it is today, it was largely made possible / easier using the money gained from getting "free" or virtually free (or even stolen) resources such as kauri, rimu, gold and land. Roads were built using nz resources to access basically "free" land. Farmland was created by selling off the "free" trees that once occupied it. The farmland was then given away cheaply to encourage new settlers. Houses were built from the "free" trees that the Europeans "discovered". Kind of like me building houses on your land, using your building materials from your shed, and your gold to pay for labour, and giving away bits of your land to pay for workers, then saying that I made it all myself. by the way, I do not own land or a house here. I cannot afford it. The crown owns a lot of land, but they refuse to release it for building on, so that it keeps the demand high and prices up. Can I come and build a house on your land using your resources, and your money please? Then I'll be able to tell my grandkids how I am a self made man who arrived with nothing and built a life for myself.

Come on @lawabidingpoacher and @v8. Nobody has changed the landscape or pillaged the world's resources as much as Europeans, and Europeans haven't gone extinct. To say that Māori lived here for almost a thousand years, and longer in the pacific, on Rarotonga etc, but they wouldn't have lasted another couple of hundred years before completely wiping themselves out is crazy. Before commercial fishing, whaling, sealing etc, there would have been enough fish and food to sustain the relatively small population of Māori forever. Kumara grows anywhere. Māori ate lots of plants that are still in abundance. Sure, all humans have an environmental impact, and are destructive, but to try to say that Māori had more of a destructive impact than Europeans in the 700 - 1000 years they were here compare to the impact in the 300 years that Europeans have been here is preposterous. We are not self sufficient here. We ship container ships full of food and product in every day. We buy it from poorer countries who cannot afford the very fruit that they grow. Or we grow it in foreign countries on land that the crown stole, and built with slave labour. It is just another way the Europeans get "handouts".

https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/300515343/bay-of-plenty-iwi-go-to-court-in-legal-battle-over-marine-and-customary-boundaries

reading again what i wrote  , my wording is maybe not right . always have had a hard time putting pen to paper . yes the Maori would have survivedand if no one else came here would have done ok fighting for land etc between themselfs  if other nationalities has got her before us would anything be any different ? who knows ! maybe all would have been killed in the battles ? but then we wouldn't be NZ and none of us would be here now .. ??At the end of the day we need to be working as one nation , all together and moving NZ FORWORD not BACKWARDS.