What a dreadful letter from R Bell. How on earth can it be racist to want all men and women to have equal political rights, irrespective of when they or their ancestors came to New Zealand?

If she wants different political rights for people based on their ethnicity, then it is she who is the racist, not me. I want a society where every citizen has the same political rights, and that is what I will fight for whether elected as mayor or not.

She refers to my 'disturbing association” with Don Brash and Hobson's Pledge, for which he is one of the spokesmen. I agree with Hobson's Pledge's commitment to equal citizenship, and all New Zealanders should surely agree with that too. Article III of the Treaty of Waitangi quite explicitly guaranteed equal rights to all citizens.

But I am not a spokesperson for either Don Brash or Hobson's Pledge. I am my own person.

R Bell asserts, condescendingly, that 'Maori are unable to elect their own representatives”. But the strong representation of Maori in Parliament demonstrates conclusively that Maori are absolutely as able to get elected as anybody else.

And to suggest that Maori need 'their own representatives” in local government implies that what people with a Maori ancestor need in regard to roads, water supply and libraries is somehow qualitatively different from what other New Zealanders need. And that is arrant nonsense.

Margaret Murray-Benge (Mayoral candidate Western Bay of Plenty District Council)