Maori welfare 'a disaster', says Brash

National leader Don Brash is escorted on to the marae at Ratana Pa by Te Whanau Pani, who was part of a group which travelled down from Papakura. Picture / Mark Mitchell

National Party leader Don Brash says the number of Maori on welfare is a disaster for Maori and for all New Zealanders.

Dr Brash - who tonight delivers his second and much anticipated Orewa address - turned the heat up on New Zealand's welfare system at the Ratana Church celebrations near Wanganui yesterday.

In a dress rehearsal for Orewa, Dr Brash said he would be talking about the welfare system having "a devastating effect on Maori New Zealanders".

Of those on the domestic purposes benefit, almost 40 per cent were Maori and nearly half of all Maori children were dependent on a benefit.

"This is a disaster for Maori and for all New Zealanders, and only the National Party has the determination to deal with that disaster."

National wanted to build a "culture of aspiration" so children succeeded at school and to ensure that Maori were not wasting away on welfare.

National is expected to toughen up on welfare.

Its policy options include benefit time limits, work-for-the-dole schemes, financial penalties for women who have children on the domestic purposes benefit and sanctions on beneficiaries whose children are truants.

Dr Brash's comments drew accusations from the Government that the National leader is to embark on a racially divisive speech tonight.

Social Development Minister Steve Maharey predicted that Dr Brash would be using a speech on welfare as "a proxy" for a return to the theme of racial separatism in his Orewa speech a year ago.

Dr Brash took his party to a rapid lead over Labour soon after that speech, which warned of a dangerous drift towards racial separatism.

Yesterday, he told Ratana followers there was "nothing anti-Maori in the speech".

"There was only the strong assertion that there should be no preferential treatment based on the colour of your skin."

He used the movement's founder, Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana, to reinforce his point.

"I make no apology for that speech because it plotted a way forward and I rather suspect that T.W. Ratana, if he were alive today, would be agreeing with me."

He also said that like T.W. Ratana, who had remarkable visions, he too had a vision for New Zealand "where all people are treated equally under the law and where we all have the same rights and obligations".

Mr Maharey described Dr Brash as "almost an educated idiot" who knew about some narrow aspect of economics.

"But if you move him outside his area of expertise, he actually doesn't know anything."

He said Dr Brash wanted to inflame the debate again by pointing to the number of Maori on welfare.

To make a link with Maori he could have chosen crime or welfare, but he had already delivered a crime speech last year.

Mr Maharey said the last National Government's hard line on welfare - it introduced work for the dole and work testing - had not worked.

"What works is what we do. There are half the number of Maori unemployed now than when we came in [in 1999]."

It would be a simple argument once the rhetoric of Dr Brash's speech had died down.

"Which track record would you trust?"

He saw Dr Brash's new focus on welfare as "an opportunity, not a threat".

Meanwhile, National Party president Judy Kirk said there was excitement in the party and among the public about Dr Brash's speech tonight.

Party membership had doubled last year and the party was the strongest it had been in a decade.

Membership renewals were being sent out now and she was confident the new members and those returning would stay.

Such was the interest in the party that "it takes me an hour to get a few groceries these days".

NATIONAL'S STRATEGY

Orewa I - Last year Don Brash ignited the political year with a state-of-the-nation speech that attacked "race-based" policies, forcing the Government on to the defensive for months.

Orewa II - Tonight Dr Brash returns to address the Orewa Rotary Club - and the issue of welfare.