Brian Rudman: Life's just fine out here on the fringe, Dr Brash

Over the years, National has tried them all: Silent majority, right-thinking people, Rob's Mob and now, Don Brash's "Mainstream New Zealand". A mainstream New Zealand where minority groups, such as gays, Maori, prostitutes and people who use prostitutes, do not belong.

Listening on Monday's Morning Report to the National Party leader dig himself deeper and deeper into this awful mire, you had to wonder at what the lust for high office can do to a decent and intelligent man.

On Sunday, Dr Brash had told the National Party conference the Labour Government had been "pandering to minority interests" at the expense of "mainstream" New Zealand for "too long". Saving New Zealand for the mainstream was revealed as the theme of National's election campaign.

Asked on radio the next morning whether gays were "mainstream", he replied: "They're clearly not, they're a small minority of people." Then he added for good measure that Maori, prostitutes and their customers, and proponents of civil unions were beyond the pale also.

By day's end and with the press circling, he realised he'd gone too far and was in full "some of my best friends are gay" recovery mode. He reminded the Christchurch Press of his liberal views on sexual orientation, adding: "I certainly would not want to imply that gays were automatically not mainstream New Zealanders." How decent of him.

The writer did not pursue the matter of how exactly gays could guarantee their place in Don's Mob or what form of ritual penance might help. Left up in the air is whether Dr Brash has now retracted his first inflammatory statements. But having said it twice in a row before starting to hedge his bets, he has done the damage.

As a member of a minority myself, one that some say has been pandered to by the present Government, Dr Brash's outburst was more than a little disconcerting. I'm a known attendee of symphony orchestra concerts. If there's a change of government, will I have to hand in my Rob's Mob tie pin? And my passport?

But who am I kidding - as an Aucklander, who wants to be mainstream anyway? Don't most of us who live in Auckland do so to escape the very boredom and light's-out-at-eight, uptightness that is Dr Don's Middle Earth?

The appeal of Auckland is that belonging to a minority is a mainstream activity. We're one giant mix of minorities. A while back, the Auckland Regional Council published a snapshot of Auckland called "Another day in Paradise". It extolled the region as "a great place", adding, "Let's make it even better, together". Hyperbole aside, surely that's a better way to start a new day than Dr Brash's mean-spirited, my-neighbour-got-more-than-me approach?

Auckland is full of minorities. It is home to 92,000 Brits and 28,000 other European-born residents, 94,000 Pacific Islanders, 122,000 Asians, 23,000 Africans and 7800 from the Middle East.

As for minority languages, 17,005 speak Hindi; 5008, Arabic; 25,094, Japanese; and 7460, Dutch. Then there's the 29 per cent who profess no religion, the 12 per cent who can't speak English, the 38 per cent legally married and the 11 per cent who arrived from overseas in the past five years. Despite the differences, they're all mainstream Aucklanders, or trying hard to become so.

These might be scary statistics for the National Party - or more sinisterly, facts it feels it can use to scare "middle New Zealand". Over the years, there's little doubt, a bit of minority bashing never hurt an opposition party on the campaign trail. But in Auckland we do try to celebrate our differences, not use them to divide. The introductory greeting on Manukau City's website is a good example of this attitude.

"With over 150 different ethnic communities calling it home, Manukau City is proudly multi-cultural." This sentiment is matched by other councils across the isthmus.

At the risk of scaring Dr Brash and his strategists, the melting pot that is Auckland is the mainstream New Zealand of tomorrow.