Their smear campaigns are ham-fisted and grotesque. They’re also working.

'The energy, the power-it's palpable here on the ground,' an MP says as a sea of red, black and white flags makes its way to the Beehive and crowds line the streets.

New Zealand’s parliament was halted after a controversial bill that proposes to radically alter the way the country’s treaty between Māori and the Crown is interpreted was tabled. A vote on the bill was suspended, when opposition parties and people in the public gallery joined in a haka led by Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, who proceeded to rip up a copy of the bill. The Treaty Principles Bill was tabled by the libertarian Act party. Continue reading...