Quote Originally Posted by AntiochusIII
Wrong - the tribal people known in Australia as the Aborigines were the first people to discover Australia. These people are also the first to discover New Zealand and the formerly non-human Pacific isles, becoming Mauris of New Zealand and Polynesians of the Pacific. Indeed, I am not certain but the tribes in New Guinea are probably of the same group.

The Maoris have a complex lineage.
"The Y-chromosome results support a pattern of complex interrelationships between Southeast Asia, Melanesia, and Polynesia, in contrast to mtDNA and linguistic data, which uphold a rapid and homogeneous Austronesian expansion."

One current theory is that Taiwanese aboriginals landed in Papua New Guinea and the males wiped out and the females taken. This combined group became the basis of the polynesians. These are the Maoris who settled New Zealand.

Also the Maori are not the first people to have landed in New Zealand that at the least goes to the Moa Hunters whom the Maori wiped out.

Australian Aboriginals mtDHA:
"The genetic diversity of the Australian mitochondrial sequences is remarkably high and is similar to that found across Asia. This is in contrast to the pattern seen in previously described Y-chromosome data where an Australia-specific haplotype was found at high frequency. The mitochondrial genome data indicate that Australia was colonized between 40 and 70 thousand years ago, either by a single migration from a heterogeneous source population or by multiple movements of smaller groups occurring over a period of time. Some Australian and New Guinea sequences form clades, suggesting the possibility of a joint colonization and/or admixture between the two regions. " -