Turia to apologise for 'Maori Holocaust' speech

By AUDREY YOUNG political reporter

Minister Tariana Turia is due to apologise in Parliament this afternoon after the outcry over her "Maori Holocaust" speech.

"She will be offering her sincere apologies to everyone that she offended," said Prime Minister Helen Clark before leaving last night for the United Nations in New York.

"She has prepared a statement indicating she unreservedly apologises for the distress she has caused."

Helen Clark believes reaction to the speech took Mrs Turia by surprise. "I don't think she had the slightest inkling she would cause such offence."

Mrs Turia sparked uproar last week with a speech to the Psychological Society in Hamilton in which she presented a theory of why Maori have high rates of violence.

She compared the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews died at the hands of German Nazis, to Maori under colonialism.

She spoke of the lack of attention given to "the Holocaust suffered by indigenous people, including Maori, as a result of colonial contact and behaviour."

Colonial oppression of Maori had led to "post-colonial traumatic stress disorder." One of its effects was violence against spouses and children.

She also compared home invasions to the invasions of Maori homelands.

Helen Clark said: "I don't expect people not to express their views, but it is the way you express them and the language you use."

"I don't accept that the word Holocaust can be validly used about the New Zealand experience.

"There are things about the New Zealand experience that none of us should feel proud about. In fact, we should feel ashamed of them.

"But I would not use that particular term which has a specific and very tragic meaning."

Helen Clark defended Mrs Turia as a senior Maori woman with a strong record on health and welfare whose strengths she wanted to use.

"I have great respect for Mrs Turia's on-the-ground, practical work with and for Maori. She has a very big role to play in addressing the serious disparity issues between Maori and other New Zealanders."

Mrs Turia has kept her silence since the speech last Tuesday and spoke to Helen Clark only on Sunday when the Prime Minister returned from a skiing holiday.

It seemed from Helen Clark's version of their conversation that Mrs Turia's press secretary did not send the speech to the Prime Minister's office for vetting - the custom with potentially sensitive speeches.

In fact, the speech was sent to Helen Clark's office but, said a press secretary, at the same time as the news media received it.

Mrs Turia is a Minister of State outside cabinet. She is also Associate Minister of Maori Affairs, Corrections, Health, Housing, and Social Services and Employment.