Hobson’s Pledge targets Nat voters

Political group Hobson’s Pledge is trying to light a race-relations fire, but detractors aren’t feeling the heat.

A billboard proclaiming ‘‘We are now one people’’ could be seen on Mill Street in central Hamilton and roadside signs dotted the clogged roads into Fieldays.

Hobson’s Pledge, fronted by former National Party and Act Party leader Don Brash and Auckland businesswoman Casey Costello, is lobbying people to vote against the National Party’s ‘‘race-based’’ policies.

Detractors say the group is fringe, with a dated vision for New Zealand that voters no longer associate with.

Brash said the group has leased billboards in Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton and has also been dropping leaflets in letterboxes around the country.

The group plans a public meeting in Rotorua on Monday.

Labour MP for Hauraki-Waikato Nanaia Mahuta said Hamiltonians, along with the majority of New Zealanders, had moved on from such attempts to ‘‘whip up’’ negative sentiment.

‘‘The Hobson’s Pledge message is one that’s founded in half-truths and untruths . . . it’s probably made out to be a bigger sentiment than it really is.’’

Massey University lecturer in Maori history Dr Peter Meihana had received a brochure for Hobson’s Pledge in his letterbox in Blenheim.

He said the Hobson’s Pledge view of the Treaty and its application today was dated and widely disputed by current historical scholarship.