KEY POINTS:
Don Brash bowed out of politics yesterday sorry that his race-based Orewa speech had been "misunderstood" but not resiling from it.
The former National Party leader said he had "managed to convert the town of Orewa from a place to a date - so that people no longer talk about north of Orewa or south of Orewa, but about pre-Orewa and post-Orewa".
The Orewa speech, on what he saw as a trend to racial separatism based on the Treaty of Waitangi, was his first major speech as leader in January 2004 and gave National a lead over Labour.
It featured heavily in his valedictory speech in Parliament yesterday, following his resignation from the leadership on November 27 and the end of a 4 1/2 year parliamentary career after 14 years as Reserve Bank Governor.
Dr Brash believed the Orewa speech advanced discussion on relations between Maori and non-Maori.
"Almost everybody now pays at least lip service to the principle that there should be one law for all New Zealanders; that the Treaty of Waitangi established the basis for a single sovereign state, providing everybody with the same rights and privileges, not some kind of dual sovereignty."
He said that having Treaty settlements drag on decade after decade was seriously damaging to race relations in New Zealand "and encourages Maori New Zealanders to believe, against all the evidence, that their economic well-being depends on the size of a compensation cheque".
He believed most people accepted there was no justification for "separate racially based electoral rolls", with discussion now focused on "when" rather than "whether" the Maori roll should be abolished.
And he believed most people saw affirmative action that allowed "some New Zealanders" access to university with lower grades than others as "demeaning and patronising, and engenders anger and ill-will on the part of those not so preferred".
He talked about a minority of Maori New Zealanders being "determined to assert a view of the Treaty utterly at variance with the needs of a modern democratic society, where every person is equal under the law, and nobody more equal than anybody else".
And describing New Zealand, he said it was a country "where it no longer feels awkward to sing the national anthem in two languages ... a country where I can watch my 13-year-old Eurasian son playing happily with a dozen of his friends and count two Chinese, one Korean, one Sri Lankan, one Eurasian, six Pakeha and the grandson of a Maori activist - all of them New Zealanders".
Dr Brash's retirement at 66 follows a tumultuous few months in which he was plagued with revelations of an extramarital affair and the publication of a book based on his private political emails.
The book, by Nicky Hager, strongly suggests the Orewa speech was a carefully executed strategy written largely by others to get Dr Brash maximum exposure as new leader.
His decision to promote it heavily in his farewell speech thumbs his nose at that interpretation of events.
Dr Brash paid tribute to politicians from several other parties, including Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia, and said that he also respected the ability of Prime Minister Helen Clark and her Deputy, Michael Cullen.
Neither Ms Clark nor New Zealand First leader Winston Peters stayed to hear Dr Brash's final speech.
Dr Brash's wife, Je Lan, and teenage son, Thomas, were in the public gallery to watch Dr Brash as he spoke a little emotionally about his family's unstinting support.
"Only the families of those who have been in the heat of the political battle know just how much pain and how much stress families suffer as a result of the careers we in this House freely choose."
Dr Brash formally retires on February 5.
BRASH MOMENTS
Regrets
* I never made it into Government; I didn't change a single law.
* That my views on the Treaty of Waitangi were misunderstood by many as an attack on Maori.
* That my views on the urgent need to reform the welfare system were misunderstood as an attack on those who depend on that system.
And on mistakes
* Remaining silent when the National Party caucus decided [under Bill English] that, had National been in Government, we would've supported Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States in the invasion of Iraq even though I had serious misgivings about the wisdom of that course of action.
* Sending a letter to the Dean of Christchurch Cathedral declining his invitations to speak and making disparaging remarks about Helen Clark's attitude to religion and the institution of marriage [he said she was indifferent].
* Confusing friend and foe alike by voting for the first reading of the Civil Union legislation and against the second reading.
