Governor-General expected to give different interpretation of Brash's treaty quote

By RUTH BERRY and AUDREY YOUNG

The Governor-General, Dame Silvia Cartwright, may today be seen to be challenging National Party leader Don Brash's claim that "we are one people".

Dr Brash last week sparked a renewed focus on race relations with his controversial speech in Orewa.

In it, he cited a phrase Governor Hobson said to Maori chiefs who signed the treaty, "he iwi tahi tatou ... we are one people", to back his stance.

But the speech the Governor-General will deliver at Government House late today is expected to challenge Governor Hobson's interpretation of the phrase.

Dame Silvia will offer different interpretations traversed by renowned anthropologist Dame Joan Metge in a speech about the treaty on Sunday.

Dame Silvia endorses Dame Joan's finding that the phrase could have two meanings, either "we two people together make a nation" or "we many people coming together make a nation".

Dame Silvia will argue that while the first interpretation might have been appropriate when the treaty was signed, the second is now the best interpretation.

It is understood Dame Silvia's speech was written independently of Dr Brash's and was not designed as a response to it.

She has emphasised in previous speeches similar themes about the need to recognise that New Zealand is a multicultural country.

Nevertheless, today's speech may be seen as a challenge to the ideas and definition of history Dr Brash is promoting.

* Labour Minister Margaret Wilson says it is "perverted" for Don Brash to suggest that Maori with official marae positions are entitled to unlimited tangi leave under the bereavement provisions of last year's changes to the Holidays Act.

Dr Brash's claim, made on National Radio, followed related comments after a three-day caucus retreat in Whangarei where he said employers would be discouraged from hiring Maori because of the leave provisions.

He said employers had no discretion to refuse the leave.

The Holidays Act is due to take effect on April 1 and has no specific reference to tangi leave.

Employees are entitled to three days' leave on the death of their spouse, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, or spouse's parent.

But the act also says that an employee must be allowed a day's bereavement leave if the employer accepts either that there was a close association between the employee and the dead person, that the employee has to take significant responsibility for ceremonies relating to the death, or that the employee has "cultural responsibilities" in relation to the death.

Ms Wilson said everyone had the same entitlement "and it is perverted to use this modest allowance as a reason or an excuse to discriminate".

Dr Brash appeared to have condoned discrimination against job applicants because of their race.

"This is illegal, not to mention small-minded."