KEY POINTS:
Labour's attempt to paint National leader John Key as unworthy of being Prime Minister because of his comments about colonial history have backfired after National revealed Michael Cullen made a similar comment three years ago.
Dr Cullen yesterday dismissed John Key as having "a profound misunderstanding of New
Zealand history" because of a comment he made in an interview on Treaty settlements with Newstalk ZB.
Mr Key described New Zealand as a "country that came peacefully together", saying it was unique because "we are not a country that has come about through civil war or a lot of fighting internally".
The comments drew derision from Prime Minister Helen Clark and Dr Cullen, who accused Mr Key of "a profound misunderstanding of New Zealand history" for ignoring the Maori Land Wars.
However, National fought back. In Parliament Gerry Brownlee read out part of a Waitangi Day 2005 speech by Dr Cullen referring to "a country with a continuous political tradition unbroken by civil war or revolution for over 150 years - something a bare handful of countries can celebrate".
Mr Brownlee also read from Governor-General Anand Satyanand's speech on Waitangi Day this year which said the Treaty was signed with "no shots fired in anger and no occupying armed force or an army waiting to invade" and said there were few other countries "where such monumental change has occurred without a shot being fired".
Mr Brownlee's response seemed to leave Dr Cullen short of an answer. He later said he was referring to the unbroken institution of Parliament.
Mr Key, who has complained to Newstalk ZB over its use of the interview, released a transcript which shows he mentioned the Land Wars and land confiscations elsewhere in the interview. He said the comments reported related to the negotiation and signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 and had been taken out of context.
"The answer I gave was quite correct. I'm not 'naive' about the Land Wars - of course there were musket wars and the like. I was asked a question about the Treaty and that happened after the Treaty was signed."
Mr Key also drew support from historian Reverend Patricia Bawden.
"When John Key says this country grew from the seeds of peace he was actually quite right. It did start in peace. The tensions came after the signing at Waitangi and that was years before the Maori Land Wars."
* What Key said:
One of the unique things about New Zealand is that we are not a country that has come about through civil war or a lot of fighting internally. We're a country that peacefully came together - Maori and the Crown decided from both partners' side that it was in their interests to have a peaceful negotiation.
That's what the Treaty was - a founding document - a development document for New Zealand and I think that we could work things out in a peaceful, sensible and mature way has actually been a defining part of New Zealand's history.