Racist posters condemned

Political parties have condemned posters inciting racial violence that have appeared in Wellington.

The posters, calling for New Zealanders to show "white power" and riot in the way that gangs have done in Australia, were pasted up at Wellington railway stations yesterday.

Racial violence, primarily between whites and Lebanese, has flared in Sydney in the past week.

National Party leader Don Brash said: "There is no place in New Zealand for these kinds of threatening, inflammatory actions.

"The idea that some people cannot have the same depth of feeling for this country because of the colour of their skin is bigoted nonsense."

The posters say: "If Sydney can do it so can we... let's take back our land."

Commuters said they were appalled by the posters, attributed to a white supremacist group "White Crusaders of the Racial Holy War".

Dr Brash said the group was "a small, fascist underbelly, hell-bent on causing division and destroying New Zealand's egalitarian ethos...they are thugs and bigots".

United Future leader Peter Dunne also condemned the posters.

"There is much to admire about Australia but copying the stupid attitudes of drunken thugs at Cronulla in Sydney is not the way forward for a peaceful New Zealand," he said.

"When the police catch up with these idiots, I hope part of their punishment will be a lesson in New Zealand's demographic trends which will show them they're fighting a losing battle."

- NZPA