MP Maurice Williamson, who last week accused Kiwis of being racist over foreign land ownership, made jokes about Muslims and Pacific Islanders at an awards ceremony last month, it has emerged.
Stuff.co.nz reports that on August 20, Mr Williamson was presenting two awards at a ceremony hosted by the New Zealand Institute of Building.
He reportedly asked MC Oscar Kightley – a Samoan – if his "papers were in order", before turning his attention to Islam.
"What is the difference between Muslims and Kiwis?" Mr Williamson asked. "Muslims get to commit adultery and get stoned, Kiwis get stoned and commit adultery."
He also made a joke about the weather – that it's "Shi'ite in the morning and Sunni in the afternoon."
Shi'ite and Sunni are two of the larger Muslim denominations.
Kightley said he wasn't offended, but he didn't expect a "fresh" joke to come from the Minister of Building.
There are conflicting reports as to whether the Building Minister had been drinking.
"Someone told me later he'd had a few, but I didn't think he was stumbling or slurring or anything," said Kightley. "But he was definitely in a nice and relaxed and jovial mood."
One guest told Stuff there was quite a lot of alcohol, but as the audience was a "load of builders", it is unlikely anyone would have been offended.
Mr Williamson declined to comment.
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