Peters back on attack over race

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters yesterday called for the resignation of Race Relations Conciliator Joris de Bres as the row over Mr Peters' weekend attack on immigration policy raged on.

Prime Minister Helen Clark again warned that his speech could harm New Zealand, and parties across the political spectrum continued to strongly criticise him.

Mr Peters told his party's annual convention on Sunday that Government policies would divide society.

"The ultimate destination looks very much like the hotbeds of ethnic and religious conflict - places such as Kosovo, Sri Lanka and Northern Ireland," he said.

"We are witnessing the Balkanisation of our country."

Mr Peters used immigration as the basis for his election campaign this year, and New Zealand First won 13 seats to become the third-largest party in Parliament.

The Government interpreted Sunday's speech as being anti-Asian, and Mr de Bres described it as "the product of an over-active imagination".

"I don't think we get anywhere by demonising people," he said.

Mr de Bres also warned that economic damage could result when Mr Peters' comments were reported overseas.

Mr Peters said the conciliator was not qualified to comment on those issues and should resign.

"Mr de Bres has put himself in the position of being seen as a puppet for the Government.

"The conciliator is supposed to be an impartial officer who does not get involved in party politics," he said.

"Or is it okay as long as what he says is on the Government side?"

Helen Clark, who said at the weekend that she feared Mr Peters would damage trade with huge markets in Asia, said yesterday his remarks would "set tongues wagging" in those countries.

"People wonder whether their students will be safe in a country where these sorts of things are said; where divisiveness is whipped up," she said.

"When a significant number of your neighbours and your major export markets and your source tourism and student countries are in Asia, it's a strange message to send them that you want their money but not their people."

In other developments:

* Mr Peters said he had received huge support for his speech from "ordinary New Zealanders".

* Auckland University lecturer Jim Headley, an expert on international conflict, said Mr Peters should "get his facts straight" and his comparisons with Kosovo and Northern Ireland were wrong.

* United Future Party leader Peter Dunne denounced NZ First's policies as "divisive".

* Progressive Coalition leader Jim Anderton said New Zealand was a much better society than New Zealand First portrayed.

"What makes New Zealand First's behaviour especially ugly is that its arguments are fact-free."

* The Green Party urged the media to ignore such remarks.

"Mr Peters spouts this kind of odious racism precisely because he knows he can get a headline out of it," said immigration spokeswoman Metiria Turei.

She said that the comments were unacceptable in a free society.

- NZPA

Further reading
Feature: Immigration