Waitangi Day organisers expect PM to attend

Waitangi Day organisers at the birth place of the Treaty of Waitangi anticipate Prime Minister Helen Clark will turn up again this year along with a record crowd of 30,000.

Waitangi Day organising committee chairman Pita Paraone believed Miss Clark would once again walk around the stalls at the Treaty Grounds as she did last year, the Northern Advocate reports.

He also expected Governor General Dame Silvia Cartwright to return.

"I've said in the past that if the Prime Minister is not in attendance, it's almost like having a birthday party without the birthday boy," said Mr Paraone, who is a New Zealand First list MP.

But Mr Paraone anticipated Miss Clark would not attend the pre-Waitangi Day celebrations at nearby Te Tii Waitangi Marae, where she was jostled and had a missile thrown at her in 2004.

A spokesman for Miss Clark said she had not decided if she would visit Waitangi on February 6.

It was "probable" Dame Silvia would attend, her spokesman said.

In previous years Miss Clark has confirmed her attendance just a week before the event.

Last year, 23,000 people attended the Waitangi Day celebrations there.

With Waitangi Day on a Monday this year (February 6), people will be able to take part in the preceding two-day festival over the weekend, and school does not resume until February 7.

As for security, Mr Paraone and his committee are not complacent after the quiet celebrations of last year, when only one arrest was made.

"The moment they (organisers) become complacent about what will happen, they do so at their own peril. I've come to accept Waitangi is a place of protest," Mr Paraone said.

With Waitangi Day activist Hone Harawira now a politician, Mr Paraone said: "History will show when one protest leader has given way, there will always be another to take his or her place."

- NORTHERN ADVOCATE (WHANGAREI)