Turia treads cautious path

By AUDREY YOUNG

Tariana Turia tiptoed around the issues of self-determination and self-governance yesterday in her first speech since the storm over her "Maori holocaust" address.

She raised controversial issues but dealt with them in a non-controversial way.

"Self-governance as being the choice of self-determination for me means the right to participate in and control the processes through which decisions that affect our lives are made," Mrs Turia told the Council of Social Services conference in Wellington.

She was not talking about separate development or apartheid, as others had suggested, she said, in an apparent reference to Winston Peters' claims of "creeping apartheid" developing in New Zealand.

Mrs Turia, the Associate Minister of Social Services and Employment, said notions of self-governance and self-determination had relevance in any compact between the Government, the voluntary social services sector and what she termed "mana whenua," the iwi of the area.

She suggested that she had been wary about what to tell the conference.

"I started to think about what I would not say rather than what I would say."

An outcry followed her speech a fortnight ago about the effects of colonisation on Maori, which she described as a "holocaust."

Humour was more evident yesterday.

Mrs Turia and Social Services Minister Steve Maharey were asked to speak on the theme of "the ball in our court," and she used an extended tennis metaphor.

"This mixed-double team of Steve and I are a pretty awesome team and each of us has little talents. But I can assure you only one of us has balls."

Meanwhile, Labour MP John Tamihere yesterday attacked Mr Peters in Parliament, saying he was like a potato - brown on the outside, white on the inside - and accusing the NZ First leader of playing the race card.

In debate on the Pouakani Claims Settlement Bill, Mr Tamihere asked National MPs: "Let us not go down into the gutter with members of the Act Party and NZ First. Do not play the treaty card. Do not play the race card."