International media are having a ball with John Key's Tuhoe "cannibalism joke" and "passive-aggressive" apology.

'Cabinet is not so different from a marae committee meeting,' Tuhoe representative Tamati Kruger says.

Tuhoe are holding emergency hui to discuss John Key's announcement that iwi ownership of the Urewera National Park is off the negotiating table.

Tuhoe representatives believe they had Cabinet numbers to secure ownership of Te Urewera National Park but say a nervous prime minister acting unilaterally stood in the way.

In defensive mode over National's Maori policy agenda, John Key says separatism has no place in New Zealand.

National's stack of agreements with the Maori Party may spark Cabinet dissent.

Higher tobacco taxes are a first step to reducing numbers of smokers. Martin Johnston looks at what else could be on the cards.

The Govt has cancelled pumping $430m into superannuation, tax credits and benefits that would have, in effect, been compensation for higher tobacco taxes.

Tobacco tax will jump 10 per cent from midnight, raising the price of a pack of 20 cigarettes by about a dollar to around $11.

An increase in excise tax is among likely recommendations of a report into alcohol to be released next week, the Bill English says.

The PM says the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous people that NZ signed up to overnight will have no practical effect, but Rodney Hide disagrees.

National has agreed to support the contentious UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.