Pay it back, Hone Harawira told

Hone stops off for a surf on way home

JOHN SELKIRK

PARTLY SORRY: Hone Harawira addresses the media at the Auckland University Marae yesterday. He said he was sorry for the language of his email to Buddy Mikaere, but not the sentiments expressed or his Paris trip.

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Embattled Maori Party MP Hone Harawira has been told to pay back some of the taxpayer money he spent on his trip to Brussels and Paris.

Speaker Lockwood Smith said last night that he had written to Mr Harawira asking him to confirm formally that he had taken an unscheduled day's leave for private purposes during his parliamentary trip to Brussels. If he had, Dr Smith expected a recovery of costs.

A spokesman for Dr Smith said: "The letter specifies an amount based on a proportion of his travel and accommodation costs."

He declined to reveal the amount Dr Smith had asked Mr Harawira to repay, but it is understood to be about $1100.

Prime Minister John Key said yesterday he was sick of hearing about the MP for Te Tai Tokerau.

Labour called for Mr Harawira to be sacked after he delivered a half-hearted apology for sending an expletive-filled email to former Waitangi Tribunal director Buddy Mikaere and then called Labour leader Phil Goff "a bastard".

Mr Harawira said he was sorry for the language in his email but not the sentiments expressed.

He also apologised to the Maori Party, saying his words had caused "considerable damage and unnecessary harm to friends" and that his use of the word "motherf...er" was demeaning to women.

"My choice of words has led to a flood of emails and accusations, and for that I do apologise."

Mr Harawira said he would pay back any money Dr Smith requested, but he did not apologise for his side-trip to Paris, which he said should not be held to standards set by "European colonisers".

On Radio Waatea, Mr Harawira said Mr Goff should be "lined up against the wall and shot" for his party's foreshore and seabed legislation.

Mr Key said there was little he could do because Mr Harawira was not his MP.

"I think I speak for all New Zealanders when I say we're all getting a bit sick of the Hone Harawira sideshow," he said. "There are some big things going on in New Zealand. That's where my focus of attention is."

He thought the public would be pleased Mr Harawira had delivered "an apology of sorts, and I'll leave them to judge the merits of that apology".

Mr Goff said the latest outburst was another example of Mr Harawira being unable to control his language.

"I don't think somebody who behaves in that way and then uses obscene and racist comments against other ethnic groups has any place in this Parliament at all, and it is time that the Maori Party and John Key took this issue seriously," Mr Goff said.

"I wouldn't have a person who behaved like that and spoke like that as a member of my caucus."

He said Mr Harawira seemed to think a different standard applied to Maori.

"He's proud of ripping the taxpayers off and he genuinely believes that white people are to blame for all of his problems."

Ngapuhi leader David Rankin, who is a relative of Mr Harawira, said he was embarrassed by the apology.

"Harawira has disgraced our iwi with his gutter language and has caused more racial division in New Zealand society than any other single person in a generation," he said.

"As an MP, we expect certain standards, and instead Mr Harawira has dragged down all of Ngapuhi to his level."

Mr Harawira said the controversy had damaged his credibility, and he would be doing "serious bridge-building" with his caucus members.

Maori Party co-leaders Pita Sharples and Tariana Turia refused interview requests yesterday.

Hone stopped off for a surf

Hone Harawira went surfing in Hawaii on his way home from his taxpayer-funded parliamentary trip to Brussels.

In his column in yesterday's Northland Age, the Maori Party MP says he and wife Hilda stopped off in Hawaii "to do some indigenous networking – hanging out with the brownies".

He wrote that he attended a Hawaiian sovereignty hui, where he met academics and speakers from the Hawaiian Kingdom movement. "A few days catchin' the sun and riding the waves, then it was the obligatory mad rush to buy a million T-shirts for the whanau and jump on the big bird home."

When his caucus colleagues asked him about the highlight of his Hawaiian visit, he said it was "combining a musicology assessment with a review of local foreshore and seabed issues" – which he admitted was a concert featuring finalists from American Idol. "An awesome evening – excellent company, great music, soft sands, palm trees, gentle breeze, cool runnins," he wrote. "But there's no place like home."

The column also casts doubt on the sincerity of yesterday's apology. "It seems like my trip to Paris got all the dull, boring, fun-hating, anal-retention types so worked up that I may end up in serious strife with the Speaker of the House."

The Speaker's office said last night that Mr Harawira was entitled to one stopover on a long-haul journey and had applied for Hawaii on the basis that he was attending a conference. That had been approved.

The taxpayer had met the cost of one night's accommodation in Hawaii, but all other expenses would have been met by Mr Harawira.

- © Fairfax NZ News