G'day Azizi,

Lil' Kiwi's time zone is about as far from yours as possible. If you are on US Pacific time - Lil' Kiwi is 16 hours ahead, nestling up against the Western side of the International Date Line. Just across the line (American Samoa ... ?) is now 7 hours behind you!

The general statement that "... Right now the Maori are just like anyone else in terms of how they are treated ..." has a degree of truth. In law, they are equal - but, in practice, they are not as well off as the population of European descent. That said, they are a lot better off that Australia's Aboriginal population ... at least the Maori won a number of battles against the invaders - and, so won a treaty. Our Native People have no such treaty - and the incumbent Federal government has not intention of changing that "because it might legitimise various legal claims".

We came close to legal overthrow of the specious Terra Nullius precept, which held that Australia belonged to nobody (... under British law ...) at the time of colonisation with the favourable decision in the "Mabo vs. Queensland" - a decision welcomed, even by 'white' landholders who could now proceed to achieve a better balance ... but this Conservative government has overthrown the decision ... and has no intention of admitting any aspect of prior claim.

Regards,

Bob