Don Brash to spread race message buoyed by poll results

By HELEN TUNNAH, deputy political editor

National Party leader Don Brash takes his race message to Rotorua today in a bid to prove he has the "guts" to deliver it direct to Maori.

Dr Brash will travel to the Bay of Plenty buoyed by a stunning rise in National's popularity in the latest opinion poll that could elevate it into office if reflected in an election.

Dr Brash, who was splattered with mud by a protester at Waitangi this month, will front Maori and the public by strolling through central Rotorua before repeating his call at a lunch-time rally for an end to race-based funding and policies.

He told the Herald he was going to a city with a large Maori population after being criticised for delivering his landmark Orewa "we are one people" speech last month to a mainly European audience.

"A number of people said you can say that to a non-Maori audience, but you haven't really got the guts ... if it's a Maori audience.

"What I want to say to an audience that is not entirely European, is that this is not and should not be seen as threatening any New Zealander, certainly not Maori."

His Rotorua visit is the first of a series of public meetings to be held in coming weeks around New Zealand.

Dr Brash's Orewa Rotary speech, in which he cautioned against a "dangerous drift to racial separatism" and attacked the Government's seabed and foreshore proposals, has helped to propel National ahead of Labour in the polls just 18 months after it recorded its worst election result ever.

The One News-Colmar Brunton poll recorded a 17-point jump for National to give it 45 per cent support, the biggest swing for a party since their polling began in 1995.

Labour support dipped in the poll, down seven points to 38 per cent, leaving it behind National even with the Green Party's 5 per cent support.

Dr Brash, who replaced Bill English as National's leader only last October, had 24 per cent support as preferred Prime Minister, up 11 points on the last Colmar Brunton poll in December, but still 10 per cent behind Prime Minister Helen Clark.

Labour has responded to the poll by accusing Dr Brash of adopting divisive language that could split New Zealand along race lines, while standing firm on its own seabed and foreshore proposals.

Yesterday, Helen Clark backed suggestions made by Labour backbencher Clayton Cosgrove that Dr Brash was indulging in a "politics of the punch" campaign and was like controversial ultra-nationalist and former Australian politician Pauline Hanson.

Dr Brash said such comparisons were "grossly offensive".

Helen Clark said the latest poll, conducted from February 9-12, had been driven by "unprecedented" publicity about one speech driven by a single issue, and on the back of fighting and protests at Waitangi.

She said National would find it a struggle in the election runup next year to explain why it endorsed special race-based programmes when it was in Government.

She not only criticised Dr Brash's language on race as similar to Pauline Hanson's, but linked him to politicians she says ripped New Zealand society apart.

They included National Prime Minister the late Sir Robert Muldoon and former Finance Ministers Sir Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson, with whose policies Dr Brash has been linked in his former job as Governor of the Reserve Bank.

Dr Brash said Labour's criticisms showed it was worried National's message had struck a chord with New Zealanders.

"It's mud-slinging ... but there's no way I'm going to be intimidated by that kind of nonsense."

How parties rated

Results of the One News-Colmar Brunton poll, party vote:

* National, 45 per cent, up 17 (from December).

* Labour, 38, down 7.

* NZ First, 6, down 5.

* Green, 5, up 1.

* United Future, 2, unchanged.

* Act, 1, down 5.

* Undecided, 11, down 2.

Sample 1000. Margin of error 3.2 per cent.