Important to be heard at Waitangi

WELCOME - OR NOT? Prime Minister John Key arrives at Te Tii marae ahead of Waitangi Day celebrations last year.

WITH all the kerfuffle around Waitangi Day and the invitation - or not - to Prime Minister John Key, my email account came alive with people telling me to tell the PM not to bother going to Waitangi.

The feeling is that his repeated attendance, only to be yelled at and become the target of the odd missile, just adds to the air of self-importance for some and gives others the right to pigeon-hole those who raise their voice in opposition to anything.

But the fact is that backing yourself is important for a prime minister. Putting yourself in the midst of controversy to hear the arguments against policy is what an active and real democracy is all about.

At the same time, those wanting to be credible protesters have to hold themselves with some dignity - and debating whether or not to extend an invitation is maintaining that dignity.

It will be the execution of the protest and the maintenance or otherwise of that dignity once the hot-headed and profile-seeking protesters turn up in their thousands that will be the test of any semblance of credibility.

Much as Mari tend not to vote for the National Party, they do support them. Exit polls and other polling shows that 34 per cent of Mari voters were happy with the outcome of the 2014 election and 37 per cent prefer John Key as prime minister - yet only 7.9 per cent voted National.

So one in three are happy that National won the election, which is a bigger percentage than the general population's support for Labour at the moment.

Having been to Waitangi on several occasions, I have seen some of the ruckus and some of the dignity and it doesn't turn me off.

I have never shied away from getting yelled at and see it as all part of the process.

I wonder, though, what other world leaders think about a country, probably the most democratic in the world, where prime ministers and governors general - even the monarch - have gone out of their way to make themselves available to hear the not-always-polite voice of anti-reason.

Having booked my flights and accommodation I have now been tasked to attend another event on behalf of the Government in Wellington on the day of protest at Waitangi so will miss the speeches, the protests and the bunfight.

I will also miss the singing, the haka and the dawn service, the remembrance and the pageantry which is Waitangi Day on the treaty grounds, and I am sorry about that.

I am disappointed that many Kiwis will only look on Waitangi Day as a venue and opportunity for protesting about difference, and not as a salient point in our history and a celebration of our national day.

Taking the time to go and see these events for oneself is a responsibility for anybody wanting to hold strong views either way.

But there's not much point in going if you don't get a chance to speak, and people who say "talk to the hand"are not democratic and not in favour of free speech.

Ignorance is always bliss. Sometimes it takes guts to be informed first-hand.