Pledge #4 Treaty Claims

Labour has anounced a pledge to a time limit for the lodging of historic Treaty of Waitangi claims. cut off by 1 September 2008, with claims intended to be settled by 2020.

So what does this mean? well it makes labour more paletable to a large number of middle of the road non-maori who have long been concerned the treaty issues would exist forever. It is likely to upset many maori who will be unhappy with not being able to make claims after 2008.

Basically sound policy a fairly sensible timeline (one government term). Labour may loose some maori votes to the maori party - but it has lost most of the maori seats anyway and it to some degree neutralizes one of nationals platforms.