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Hone Harawira has stepped out of the spotlight after his infamous "white motherf...kers" email was made public

Hone Harawira has stepped out of the spotlight after his infamous "white motherf...kers" email was made public

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 1:31p.m.
Controversial MP Hone Harawira has again stressed his determination to stay with the Maori Party, but admits "serious bridge building" is needed.

Mr Harawira has stepped out of the spotlight after his infamous "white motherf...kers" email was made public, and there was no sign of him at a Maori Party caucus meeting this morning.

In his Northland Age column today, Mr Harawira admitted the email had caused a lot of political damage to himself and let down his party.

"I recognise there needs to be some serious bridge building on my part with my caucus colleagues, and I will be doing so over the next weeks."

Mr Harawira said he did not intend leaving his party, despite the party and others suggesting he should do so. His leaders have asked him to take time off.

Prime Minister John Key said today if Mr Harawira left the party and became independent it would have no impact on the National Government as it had brought the Maori Party on board as part of a willing partnership rather than out of necessity.

Political damage done by Mr Harawira's comments was minimal because the Maori Party had made it clear it didn't support them.

"In the end this is an issue for Maori Party leadership to deal with, and I think they're doing their best in very difficult circumstances," he told reporters.

He said Mr Harawira's Tai Tokerau electorate needed to decide whether there was still a place for him in Parliament.

"The reality is that there are lots of people in Parliament who have quite extreme views, and who are quite colourful characters, and if we are going to exclude from Parliament people who say things we don't like, then it's going to be a very interesting Parliament."

Mr Key said the "vast bulk" of New Zealanders would not have been supportive of the comments which got Mr Harawira into hot water.

Meanwhile, Buddy Mikaere, who received the offending email and made it public, said he didn't regret doing so.

He told The New Zealand Herald he released it after Mr Harawira challenged him to.

The offensive comments were in response to an email Mr Mikaere sent questioning the way Mr Harawira skipped off to Paris while on a parliamentary visit to Brussels.

The reply was: "White motherf...kers have been raping our lands and ripping us off for centuries and all of a sudden you want me to play along with their puritanical bullshit?"

Mr Mikaere told the paper he considered Mr Harawira was not fit to be an MP.

NZPA
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Comments [9]

chris
15 Dec 2009 1:41a.m.

BART; am Maori too from 90mile beach . do you know when labour took (confiscated) land's of a Maori 2004 up north
they were beach's my father(deceased now ) took us to, all those coastlines we were never ever denied access.We could go there and collect kai moana at radom.heck anyone could go there and build batch's.but we never claimed land's bcause they are ancestral they dd have owners ,maori that allow their land's to be used in this fasion.then govt... comes along and claim's it and sell's them.Hone fights for the rights of those people's land's to be returned to them even though their tipuna have gone .He is a lone voice in
Parliament, if you claim to be Maori .don't beat maori down pakeha can do that for you

Jan..
23 Nov 2009 12:59a.m.

ruby Hone's piece of art is in material compared to what our country is up against at the moment,too many deaths in our country, it is a far more impotant issue to save our country and our people from death before there time..
Are you keeping the Maori Party busy worring about Hone in material things while you are busy rampaging our country..
I just don't care if you are pink, red, yellow, black or white,I dont care what colour you are but the main issue here is to catch the terrorist or are you one of them..

ruby
18 Nov 2009 11:15a.m.

Hone, Hone , Hone what a mummies boy ay. What was your motivation to be an MP ? For awhile I admired you for your wit, your sharp edged intelligence.. now you are an angry belligerent xenophobe the only difference between you and other racists is color

Helen
18 Nov 2009 5:59a.m.


While I believe we can defend My Harawira's right to say what he believes - he acted without dignity in his role as a parliamentarian and as a Maori.

And yes I am a pakeha.

dan
17 Nov 2009 9:29p.m.

The money wasn't a big deal peanut's compared to other's it was his choice of word's. Maybe "Hone" need's to go to "church" to learn how to love his enemie's.

Fatso
17 Nov 2009 3:55p.m.

Mr. Hone Harawira better step down to save some dignity you have left. I am a taxpayer and I dont trust you anymore to represent our country in any official visits abroad.
Things could have been different for you if you had apologize to the public and accepted your mistake but instead you made those racial remarks. That is pure arrogance! Just pack your bags and go back to where you came from!

Ricardo
17 Nov 2009 2:44p.m.

The man is a racist bigot, and as such, should go. His neanderthal thinking has no place in a modern society.

Bart
17 Nov 2009 2:24p.m.

I am a Maori and my wife is pakeha, We had enough of listening to your dirty tricks bro.
The game is over now. What You should do is to Carry the Bat and ball & go home. Stop begging for anymore chance as we don't want to hear your voice or see your face on TV anymore.

Jan..
17 Nov 2009 2:22p.m.

Mr. Hone Harawira must probably with the indepentants..

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