Brash a 'broken record' with new lobby group - Key

Brash a 'broken record' with new lobby group - Key

John Key has criticised his former boss Don Brash for his controversial new group which wants to get rid of race from the country's laws, saying he sounds like a "broken record".

Mr Brash has launched Hobson's Pledge calling on people to back political parties which would "vote against all laws, regulations and policies that provide for any entitlement based on ancestry or ethnicity".

It's a stance similar to that of his infamous and divisive Orewa speech in 2004 in which he pitted iwi against Kiwi. The National Party lost that year's election to Labour.

He now says New Zealand is going to "rack and ruin" because of Māori separatism.

Prime Minister John Key, who took over the baton as National Party leader from Mr Brash in 2006, says his predecessor's most recent claims made him sound like a "broken record".

He wasn't worried about the new group, named after New Zealand's first Governor-General and Treaty of Waitangi co-author William Hobson.

"It's pretty much a broken record from Don.

"There isn't separatism in New Zealand in my view, but we also have legal obligations we need to observe - we do that and if we don't do it, the courts would enforce that. I reckon most New Zealanders want to live in a harmonious New Zealand and for the most part we do that."

In an interview with Paul Henry on Thursday, Mr Brash said there was only one party which fits with his group's mantra - and it isn't National.

"I disagree with Winston [Peters, NZ First leader] on monetary policy, on the TPPA, a whole range of issues. But on this issue, he's absolutely right."

Newshub.