The row over Maori seats on Auckland’s super-city council, as some media saw it, signalled the imminent break-up of the National-led coalition. Opposition leader Phil Goff says Tau Henare’s dismissal of ACT leader Rodney Hide as a “buffoon” indicated tensions within National. But anyone who imagined Cabinet would depart from its April decision there would not be separate Maori seats (though it might have entertained a compromise) would have to be barking. So John Key wasn’t wrong when he claimed National’s relations with its partners are as strong as when they signed up to the coalition.

Earlier Key, being the eternal optimist, might have thought a compromise which would satisfy the Maori Party and ACT (as well as his own party) could have been worked out, but when it was clear this couldn’t be done there was no point in doing anything except re-confirm the April decision. For its part, ACT could claim a victory for standing on principle. The Maori Party also looked good for fighting its corner hard. And for the Govt, all the noise about the Maori seats shut down any campaign to de-rail the rest of the Auckland super-city plan.

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