'Bring it on' says Clark of debate over NZ's future

By AUDREY YOUNG and MONIQUE DEVEREUX

Helen Clark last night backed the Anglican and Catholic bishops who have called for a "treaty debate" rather than a "race debate" in the wake of the Don Brash's Orewa speech, saying "Bring it on".

To a crowd of over 300 in the Christchurch Cathedral the Prime Minister rejected suggestions that she was doing "u-turns" in response to Dr Brash's growing popularity since the speech on special treatment for Maori.

She said many people in New Zealand and abroad saw the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi "as a strength and as asset, not a liability."

"If there is to be any good come from the gross and unpleasant Orewa speech, it may be that we can get the facts out on the table and encourage an informed debate about what kind of society we want."

Helen Clark was delivering a lecture to mark five years since the "Hikoi of Hope" - an Anglican Church-organised march on Parliament during the National-led Government of 1998 to protest against poverty.

In a wide-ranging speech on what she saw as the Government's achievements, Helen Clark said she did not want to return to the "division and despair" of the 1990s which had caused so much heartache across our communities.

"Those forces of division have reared their head again in the wake of the now-infamous Orewa speech."

Helen Clark called National's attack on targeted Maori funding as "a new and disturbing development". She said it was the duty of leadership to "bring people together, not to drive them apart".

"We live in a democracy and the choices are clear: we can go forward together or we can rip ourselves apart. A debate about the future of New Zealand has been launched. I say, 'Bring it on'."

Her speech was greeted with applause. Afterwards she took questions from the floor.

One man, an immigrant from Egypt, asked why it was so difficult for him and his family to get work in their own professions even though they had 20 years' experience.

Helen Clark said systems were improving, and she was buoyed by seeing more migrants working in "mainstream occupations".

The loudest applause was reserved for a woman who told Helen Clark she was sickened by the rearing of racial debate - "the first I've heard in 20 years" - and that she felt "proud" that the Government was not going to let the country tear itself apart.

Helen Clark, Prime Minister:
The Hikoi of Hope - five years on

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