Hone Harawira's decision to quit the Maori Party and become an independent MP is a sensible outcome to an irreconcilable situation, Prime Minister John Key says

Outspoken MP Hone Harawira has left the Maori Party to form a new political movement.

Hone Harawira is likely to be booted out of the Maori Party after a committee deciding his fate recommended to cancel his membership.

Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell's responds to Hone Harawira's public comments on the party.

Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell is angry that Hone Harawira has today failed to turn up to the disciplinary hearing the rebel MP had explicitly asked for, calling Harawira's no-show disappointing and disrespectful.

Hone Harawira, wanted to become a minister when the Maori Party first went into coalition with National, according to a confidential statement by Te Ururoa Flavell.

The Maori Party today continued to hound Local Government Minister Rodney Hide over his attitude to Auckland Council's Maori Statutory Board, asking in Parliament what he meant when he said yesterday it was "inherently divisive".

The overwhelming message from Hone Harawira's Te Tai Tokerau constituents is he should stay with the Maori Party, the MP's electorate committee says.

Hone Harawira has broken down in tears in a TV interview discussing his problems with the Maori Party.

Hone Harawira's very public discomfort reflects the impossibility of being all things to all Maori.

Hone Harawira has broken down in tears in a television interview discussing his ongoing problems with the Maori Party and reiterated his desire to stay in the party.

Suspended Maori Party MP Hone Harawira spent today talking with constituents in his Tai Tokerau electorate following a disciplinary hearing in Wellington on Wednesday. Te Tai Tokerau electorate chair Lisa McNab told NZPA Mr Harawira had

The mainstream parties don't make their decisions based on what is fair, just or moral. They base it on ... politics.

The Government has bowed to pressure over the foreshore and seabed repeal bill and ditched a provision that would have allowed secret deals to be done with iwi to award customary title.

Phil Goff says a parliamentary committee ignored the "overwhelmingly" number opposed to the new foreshore and seabed legislation when they recommended it be passed without amendment today.