Peters labels Brash race statements 'evil'

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has described National Party leader Don Brash's questioning of whether Maori remained a distinct indigenous people as "evil".

Speaking today at the national conference of the Maori Women's Welfare League at Ngaruawahia, the Foreign Minister said Dr Brash had been trying to define Maori out of existence by allocating a blood quantum to ethnic belongings.

"To describe this as evil is not an overreaction," Mr Peters said.

"There are many figures in history that have similarly used blood purity as a political argument only to lead their people into an abyss of violence and destruction."

Mr Peters also labelled Dr Brash's race policy as corrupt, a term National has consistently used to described Labour's alleged mis-spending of taxpayer money on its pledge card before last year's election.

"Legally he wants Maori to be non-entities. Not enough 'Maori blood' by the Brash prescription -- no legal status as Maori," he said.

"This is the corruption at the heart of his facade. His version of 'one law for all' is a world where there is no legal recognition that Maori exist."

Mr Peters has frequently called for alleged different treatment for Maori to be stopped, but he told the conference Dr Brash had pilfered NZ First's policies and then debased them in his ignorance.

"When New Zealand First says that Maori don't want special treatment, we do not mean that Maori should stop being Maori.

"When the current leader of the National Party says he does not want special treatment for Maori, he means that Maori have no reason to want to be what they are -- Maori."

He said Dr Brash's alleged attempt to link being Maori to a quantum of blood was not only ignorant, "but also reveals a venal intent to assimilate and destroy all that is good about Maori culture and heritage".

"Apparently we would all be better off if we looked and thought like him," Mr Peters said.

"The recent Brash ramblings must be challenged for what they are: a perverse and deliberate assault on the fundamental social underpinnings of our nation."

Mr Peters also told the conference that Maori Women's Welfare League members had a part to play in combating a second evil in New Zealand society, violence.

"Rather than a fictional story, 'Once were warriors' is now a mantra many young Maori feel they must live up to: gangs, violence, abuse -- the whole 100 yards," he said.

"There is a particular mana that this organisation embodies that ensures that when you are involved the effort has credibility and is more likely to succeed.

"Put bluntly, this country needs your help to stem the culture of anger and violence and replace it with self-discipline and a sense of purpose."

- NZPA