PM mocks 'photo opportunity from hell'

Don Brash says he found Tame Iti (right) cordial when they sat with Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki (left) at Te Tii Marae. The activist invited the National Party leader to visit Tuhoe territory. Picture / Chris Skelton

Prime Minister Helen Clark has described the incongruous image of Tame Iti sitting with National Party leader Don Brash at Waitangi as "the photo opportunity from hell".

She said it undermines the attack by the Opposition on Police Minister George Hawkins over police tardiness in charging Mr Iti for firing a gun during a visit by the Waitangi Tribunal to Ruatoki on January 16.

Helen Clark cited the unusual pairing of Dr Brash and Mr Iti as the reason she chose not to go to the lower marae at Waitangi, Te Tii, on Waitangi Day.

"I didn't put myself in that position because Te Tii Marae has been associated with incidents of that nature for a long time and I don't wish to be associated with that."

The Prime Minister was famously reduced to tears at Te Tii after Ngapuhi activist Titewhai Harawira abused her but was in later years filmed walking hand-in-hand with the campaigner on to the marae.

Helen Clark said Sunday's picture undermined the Opposition attack on the police over Mr Iti.

"Here's a man whose behaviour was being debated last week as totally inappropriate so it has to be the photo opportunity from hell to be seated next to him at a powhiri."

Anticipating a possible fresh line of attack from the Opposition over her own presence at a Tuhoe tangi last year when Mr Iti also fired a shotgun, she said it was quite different to the tribunal visit - over which Mr Iti has now been charged.

"I think it is another matter altogether when the Waitangi Tribunal is greeted with great rudeness and abuse and indecent behaviour and a shotgun is fired into a flag."

Mr Iti said it might have been an Australian flag - made in Taiwan - because The Warehouse had run out of New Zealand flags.

Dr Brash told the Herald he had found Mr Iti "cordial". Mr Iti had invited him to visit Tuhoe territory so he gave him his calling card.

Dr Brash said he had also heard about the poverty in the tribe's region from arts patron Jenny Gibbs.

He did not believe that the Opposition effort had been undermined or would be undermined by his visiting Mr Iti in Tuhoe.

"It's clear that he and I have radically different views of the New Zealand constitution. I am not in any sense suggesting I accept his view nor, I am sure, does he accept mine."

Mr Iti said he wanted Dr Brash to "see us and hear straight from Tuhoe's heart and mind" rather than make judgments about Tuhoe's state of mind from television images.

National's Maori affairs spokesman, Gerry Brownlee, said under marae protocol Dr Brash could not have chosen his benchmate.

"For us to have said, 'We are not going on with him' [Tame Iti] would have been somewhat petulant and would have sent a message that we see ourselves as being better than other New Zealanders and trying to impose our views of New Zealanders.

"There are a lot of New Zealanders who think Tame Iti is fearsome and someone to be feared. The reality is he is a bit of a sideshow."

Mr Brownlee said Dr Brash would talk to anyone about National policy but did not expect National to change its view that the Treaty of Waitangi was not a partnership.

Act MP Stephen Franks, who led the Opposition attack on police inaction last week, did not believe the picture of Dr Brash with Mr Iti had damaged his case. "I can't imagine it is going to do anything other than show that he [Dr Brash] is not a knee-jerk redneck but a normal, courteous and civilised man."

The point of the Opposition attack was not to pillory Mr Iti but to highlight inequality of treatment for some New Zealanders and that the police were quick to prosecute armed farmers but not Mr Iti, he said.

"If one of the outcomes of this was that the police were much less likely to prosecute the farmer who steps out on his verandah at night with a shotgun to warn off intruders, then I'd be pleased."