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Hobson's Pledge founder Don Brash is rejecting suggestions his organisation is anti the Treaty of Waitangi.
Te Tai Tonga MP Rino Tirikatene has blamed the imminent loss of his bill seeking to entrench the Māori seats on parties running scared of losing votes to Hobson's Pledge supporters.
Mr Brash says his opposition to the continuation of Māori seats is based on his interpretation of the treaty making all New Zealanders equal.
He says the Māori seats were supposed to be a short term measure, and he denies their continued existence represents a treaty partnership.
"There's nothing in the treaty about partnership. It's a contract between the crown and the people of New Zealand, all of them. To suggest the crown could have a partnership with one of its subjects is as people as different as David Lange and Winston Peters have said, it's a nonsense. It's an absurdity," he says.
Mr Brash says Hobson's Pledge isn't racist, and the racists are those who want different treatment based on ethnicity.
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