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.

A typical pack of 25 cigarettes will cost now $17 after tax hikes were bulldozed through Parliament last night.

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.

The Maori Party's flagship policy is a step closer - but major details still have to be sorted out.

Fran O'Sullivan writes that the Maori Party is doing itself a disservice by acquiescing to National's foreshore 'solution'.