Brash greets activists, moves on to breakfast

By ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE

National Party leader Don Brash greeted protesters waving Maori sovereignty flags outside a breakfast meeting in Whakatane yesterday.

Although Dr Brash did not flinch, he did not linger. He left without accepting a "gift" of stones in several small plastic bags which were dumped on the bonnet as his chauffeur-driven car moved off. They were returned to the giver by police.

There was no chance the politician was going to be tempted into debate with the small, good-natured group of Eastern Bay of Plenty Maori activists carrying a banner saying "More Brash Trash" and chanting "Aotearoa is Maori land".

Security was tight at the Whakatane Motor Inn, where 180 mainly party faithful had assembled to hear Dr Brash expound his theories.

The gathering followed another National fundraiser, a cocktail party, which attracted several hundred guests in Tauranga on Wednesday evening. A lunchtime public rally that day in the city centre was attended by about 500 and a mid-morning whistlestop at Katikati brought out 250 people.

Once inside yesterday, meeting and greeting the breakfasting crowd, Dr Brash was out of range of a kerfuffle at the door when Whakatane Maori activist Rihi Vercoe demanded her money back.

She had been among more than 100 people turned down last week because the breakfast was over subscribed for the size of the venue.

"It just goes to show, doesn't it, that we are not being treated equally," said Ms Vercoe, as she accepted $15 in cash (after being told a refund cheque had been sent and would have to be returned).

She retreated after a police warning. Dressed in Maori costume, with a tam-o'-shanter to acknowledge her Scottish ancestry, Ms Vercoe went back to the carpark and used a megaphone to keep up a near-incomprehensible tirade while Dr Brash spoke inside.

He said he had been surprised at the huge reaction to his Orewa speech.

Describing the Treaty of Waitangi as an important document, he said he did not want to "do away with it".

Nevertheless, it was not a "living" and evolving document which provided a modern-day constitution.

There was no justification, said Dr Brash, for having principles of the treaty set "in law after law after law".

The Local Government Act went over the top with its edicts "to consult with your community and with Maori - as if Maori aren't part of the community", he said. National proposed to remove divisive references to the treaty in legislation.

He recalled Martin Luther King jnr's famous "I have a dream" speech saying he, too, wanted his children and grandchildren to be judged not by the colour of their skin but by their character. "That is the dream the National Party and I have for New Zealand."

Brash: crowd puller

* 500 in Tauranga

* 250 in Katikati

* 180 in Whakatane

* 200 at Auckland's Northern Club last night and again this morning

* 300 seats already sold out at the Hyatt for March 17