Speaker requests Harawira Paris trip refund

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Parliament's Speaker Lockwood Smith has requested Maori Party MP Hone Harawira pay back some of the taxpayers' money used to fund him attending parliamentary business from which he skipped away from to see Paris.

Dr Smith is said to have requested a portion of the total expenses amounting to around $1000 after Mr Harawira decided not to attend a parliamentary conference in Brussels and take his wife sightseeing in Paris instead.

Mr Harawira's subsequent abusive defence of his actions culminated in a partial apology yesterday and tomorrow his party will meet in his electorate to decide what, sanctions he could face.

Mr Harawira had said his decision was justified because "white motherf...rs" had been "raping" New Zealand for years and he was not beholden to white puritanical "bullshit".

Mr Harawira yesterday said sorry for his "poor choice of words" and the offence caused.

He should have instead referred to what European colonisers had done, the MP for Te Tai Tokerau said.

The comments were not an attack against all Pakeha, he said.

Mr Harawira's later comments have overshadowed the Paris trip, but he has acknowledged he had made some mistakes there as well.

"It probably could have been handled better. It was a spur of the moment thing. I could have planned to do it probably at the end of the tour and it's been suggested that that's what I should have done," Mr Harawira said.

"I got the opportunity to take the woman of my life to the city that she's always wanted to go to and that we were close enough to go to, so we went."

Mr Harawira had been unrepentant about his decision to go to Paris but said yesterday he had done the wrong thing and he would pay back some expenses but would let the Speaker's office determine what they were.

Mr Harawira's abusive comments followed former Waitangi Tribunal director Buddy Mikaere writing to Mr Harawira asking who paid for his wife, Hilda's, trip.

He had shown the email to his wife minutes after sending it and she said he shouldn't have sent it.

His apology was sincere and the best he could give, he said, though he accepted it would not satisfy all people.

"I'm not quite sure whether the rest of the country thinks I've done enough, but I know that my family think I've done as much as I possibly could."

Prime Minister John Key said it was an apology of sorts and he would leave it to New Zealanders to judge its value.

Mr Key said he believed people were sick of the "Hone Harawira side show" and it was up the Maori Party to decide how they dealt with their "shock jock" MP.

- NZPA