1 July 2005
Green lays complaint over Nats' 'Iwi / Kiwi' billboard

The National Party's 'Iwi / Kiwi' billboard is divisive and inaccurate and we expect human rights and advertising authorities will uphold a Green Party candidate's official complaint against them, Treaty Issues Spokesperson Nandor Tanczos says.

Treaty educator and Green Party New Lynn candidate Richard Green has this week laid complaints with the Human Rights Commission and the Advertising Standards Authority over the Nats' 'Beaches - Iwi / Kiwi' billboard.

"The foreshore and seabed legislation was a confiscation of Maori customary rights, so a billboard claiming Labour gave the beaches to Iwi is simply false advertising. The Green Party supports robust debate, but politicians have to be held to account when they say things that simply aren't true," Nandor says.

"Don Brash said this week that, among others, Maori are not 'mainstream' New Zealanders. These offensive billboards have already been delivering that outrageous message for several weeks - if you're in an Iwi, you're not a Kiwi."

Mr Green says: "National is trying to imply that Labour's Foreshore and Seabed Legislation 'gave' Iwi the beaches, when the opposite is actually true. Labour in fact vested full ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, confiscating Iwi customary rights.

"These billboards are misleading and continue the Maori bashing Don Brash seems so fond of. As a Kiwi I find it despicable that he is doing it in my name."

The complaint to the Human Rights Commission Race Relations Office charges that the billboard contradicts the Human Rights Act by
* Inciting racial tension through misinformation
* Isolating by race a group for political gain
* Creating and encouraging racial division

The complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority focuses on the issue of misleading and false information presented as fact in a billboard.

ENDS

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