The Maori Party says an Act party advertising campaign featuring the headline "Fed up with pandering to Maori radicals?" is deeply offensive.
The ad ran as a half page spread in the Weekend Herald today. It featured the Maori sovereignty flag and urged people to vote for ACT to stop National handing over the country for Maori Party votes.
Maori Party Co-Leader Tariana Turia said the advertising campaign was deeply offensive.
"The campaign is not in the interests of New Zealand moving forward and we will not be wasting our time in commenting further."
Act Party leader Don Brash told Radio New Zealand the ad reflected a "very deep frustration on the part of many people that successive governments, Labour and National, have been trying to appease a group of quite radical Maori, who have a view of New Zealand that is not only fundamentally different from what most New Zealanders want, but fundamentally different from any reasonable interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi."
