The AIDS Foundation board has moved to distance itself from comments made by its chair, Dr Clive Aspin, that suggested opposition to its cancelled 50% Maori board member quota proposal is racist. The board announced yesterday that it was shelving plans for the quota following overwhelming opposition from stakeholders. The announcement came only a day after GayNZ.com revealed that Aspin, in his capacity as a University of Auckland researcher, had presented a paper at an international conference recently that quoted a post from GayNZ.com's message board, from a user who opposed the plan, as a "disturbing" and "salient reminder of the level of racism that exists within New Zealand society". However, Aspin only selectively quoted the post in his paper, deleting segments that revealed the user was a Maori man who took issue with the board and Aspin in particular over his interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi. The deleted portions also criticised the quota as being part of a political agenda, and took a swipe at Aspin's rumoured election candidacy for the Maori Party, rumours which Aspin has said are untrue. While downplaying the unambiguous nature of Aspin's comments, NZAF deputy board chair Simon Robb acknowledged the concerns raised by stakeholders since excerpts of Aspin's paper were made public. "People might infer that the remarks were intended to discredit much of the opposition to the proposal as being racist," he said in a press statement. "This is clearly not the Board's position." Robb says the board accepts that Aspin did not name the AIDS Foundation in his paper. It only referred to "New Zealand's community-based AIDS organization". "The Board accepts that there is a great deal of diverse opinion in our communities about the proposal regarding the place of Maori on governance boards, and likewise the place of people living with HIV," says Robb.