Peters' claim Brash comments 'evil' wins backing

Winston Peters' labelling of Don Brash's comments on Maori as "evil" has the backing of Labour and the Maori Party.

The New Zealand First leader yesterday attacked Dr Brash's questioning of whether Maori remained a distinct indigenous people and said his race policy was "corrupt".

Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia said today Mr Peters had been right to warn the country about Dr Brash's comments.

Mr Horomia said Dr Brash understood what he was doing.

"As a Maori, I just think it's damn shocking," he said on National Radio.

Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples agreed with Mr Peters' description of the comments as "evil".

"We never talk about the man, but what he's doing is evil -- directly negating our existence," he said.

"That has to be bad. I call on National Party MPs to come out and say whether they agree with him."

Dr Brash made the comments last week when he was asked about remarks by a judge who had talked about separate legal treatment for Maori.

The National Party leader said there were few, if any, full-blooded Maori left in the country and questioned whether they were a distinct ethnic group.

He later said his comments had been misunderstood and taken out of context.

Yesterday Dr Brash said Mr Peters attack showed his "unswerving commitment" to supporting Prime Minister Helen Clark's agenda of personal attacks.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said she found Dr Brash's brand of politics "odious".

"I think Mr Peters has taken very strong exception to that," she said on TV One's Breakfast programme.

"Many of us who have contact with the Maori world know there's a distinctive culture, and it's something we treasure in this country."

Don Brash on Maori

Below are excerpts from an article Dr Brash wrote in the Herald today. Click here to read the article in full (requires subscription).

"Through six or seven generations of inter-marriage there are few if any people in New Zealand who have only Maori ancestors.

"That is not to deny that many New Zealanders choose to identify strongly with the Maori part of their ancestry, and with Maori culture. That is absolutely their right…

"But it is quite wrong to argue that because Maori are over-represented in negative social statistics, the Crown, or the Government on behalf of all New Zealanders, has somehow failed to discharge its obligations under the Treaty.

"If Maori New Zealanders die more frequently from lung cancer than non-Maori do, for example, it is almost certainly because Maori New Zealanders choose to smoke more heavily than other New Zealanders do, not a result of some failing by the Crown."

- NZPA