Hostile students force PM to break off speech

Helen Clark was met by a noisy crowd at Canterbury University. Picture / Simon Baker

A day on the hustings went awry for the leaders of both major parties - a reminder to the prime ministerial applicants that even the best-laid political plans can be disrupted.

Helen Clark was forced to cut short a speech and leave the podium when faced with an unexpectedly hostile student crowd in Christchurch.

And in the Waikato, Don Brash was given a warm welcome at Te Wananga o Aotearoa despite planning to shun the campus and opt for a sidewalk soapbox instead.

Helen Clark had expected a receptive crowd of liberal-minded students at Canterbury University.

Instead, she found angry supporters of her political opponents.

She made a rapid exit after people in the 1500-strong crowd became increasingly hostile and drowned her out with boos and chants of "Don, Don, Don".

Dozens of young National Party and Act supporters had positioned themselves at the front to disrupt her speech. One student stood directly in front of the Prime Minister and yelled in her face throughout.

Placards with derogatory comments about Helen Clark such as "Nice teeth" and "Speed kills and so do your looks Helen" were waved.

One student dressed as a pilot chanted through a loud speaker, "Paging passenger Helen Clark" in an attempt to mock her for the incident on an Air New Zealand flight two weeks ago.

She spoke for only five minutes, whereas during her visits to Otago and Waikato Universities, where she received warm receptions, she spoke for 30 to 40 minutes.

Canterbury University had been chosen as the venue for the Prime Minister to outline Labour's foreign policy because it was thought the students would be receptive to the nuclear-free message.

Helen Clark looked shaken but said later that she was not bothered by the hostile audience.

Dr Brash, meanwhile, went to the headquarters of Te Wananga o Aotearoa in Te Awamutu to give a speech about National's tertiary education plans which, in fact, became more about race relations and the embattled Maori institution.

The wananga has been under investigation since last September over concerns about potential conflicts of interest.

That inquiry was extended in February when further allegations of misuse of funds, and claims that executives' relatives had benefited from wananga practices, surfaced.

Media staff were told Dr Brash and his group did not plan to enter the campus and would instead hold a press conference outside the gate.

National insiders had suggested the wananga did not want a formal event because of political sensitivity over its future. But when the group arrived at the campus it was welcomed and led inside for a friendly powhiri. Dr Brash was escorted in by Susan Cullen, daughter of wananga chief Rongo Wetere, recently stood down on full pay.

The irony of Dr Brash's criticisms last week of the over-use of long powhiri when welcoming foreign dignitaries was lost on no one present.

Neither was the fact that Dr Brash's sister Lynn Brash works at the wananga as the acting human resources manager - and does a great job, he was told.

Chief of operations John Mote noted it was a week full of tensions for Dr Brash - the wananga understood because it had been feeling that way all year. But there were laughs.

National deputy Gerry Brownlee joked he would have to take lessons in singing and te reo if he became Maori Affairs Minister - and was offered a wananga course pamphlet.

Then it was outside for some tougher talk.

"This site is something of a monument to one of the greatest embarrassments of the Clark Labour Government," said Dr Brash.

But the pitch had been queered and the issue became the powhiri and the attempt to dodge meeting the locals.

Dr Brash first said he believed National had been told it was not welcome, then backtracked and used the political sensitivity argument.

A spokesman for the wananga said National had not asked to meet people on the campus and not been told it was not welcome.