| Tuesday, July 31, 2012 6:00 AM

Maori have always been a thorn in Governments' sides since the Waitangi Tribunal was set up back in 1975, the same year the old warhorse Rob Muldoon came to power.

Muldoon didn't have too much trouble with Maori, he simply told them he'd settle their grievances, providing they didn't predate the establishment of The Tribunal. Maori must have been so stunned by his incredible cheek that they took it on the chin.

It was Labour that declared the grievance industry open for business, allowing claims back to 1840 when The Treaty was signed, and if you listen to Luigi Peters, lawyers have been on the gravy train ever since.

But Labour was too busy flogging off state assets and Rogering economics to bother too much with the claims, that was left to the Bolger Government which made a fair fist of it. They ended up walking into the iron clenched fist of Maori though when they proposed a billion dollar cap on settlements.

A few billion bucks later Head Girl Helen felt the frustration of trying to thrash out settlements with tangata whenua when she used the law to stop Maori having their day in court over the foreshore and seabed debacle and was herself thrashed, losing much of the Maori vote.

Along came the friend of the whanau, State Homie John Key, embracing the fallout from the foreshore debate, the Maori Party even though he didn't need them to govern. What the party has shown them though is how difficult it is to govern with them.

Even though The Tories told the great unwashed before the last election they were going to partially privatise state assets they were swept back into office. The Maori Party knew their plans but the baubles of the Beehive once again beckoned and they were back on board.

Now the Waitangi Tribunal has come down with an interim recommendation that the Beehive hold off selling assets until they've had time to table their final report in September.

The Tories will now meet with their coalition cobbers to see if there's some common ground, providing it's not under claim of course!