Key apologises over Tuhoe menu joke
BY JOHN HARTEVELT AND VERNON SMALL
Prime Minister John Key has upset Tuhoe by making a joke that suggests they are cannibals.
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Prime Minister John Key has apologised over a joke which has been interpreted by some as linking Tuhoe with cannibalism.
Mr Key this morning sparked a frenzy of outrage when he opened a speech joking that if he had a meal with Tuhoe he would have been on the menu - taken by some to be a suggestion members of the iwi were cannibals.
Mr Key said he thought Tuhoe would get the joke, but it appears they were not amused.
Mr Key this afternoon told reporters he was sorry for any offence caused.
"Ahh look, it was a light-hearted joke, a bit of self-deprecating humour, but if anyone is offended, then I deeply apologise."
The joke came at the start of a speech announcing the Government's Budget tourism package. Mr Key said he had earlier had dinner with Ngati Porou representatives.
"As I said, the good news was that I was having dinner with Ngati Porou as opposed to their neighbouring iwi, which is Tuhoe, in which case I would have been the dinner," he said to the audience of about 200 from the tourism sector.
Maori MP Te Ururoa Flavell, whose Waiariki electorate includes Tuhoe's tribal area, told Radio NZ the joke was unfortunate and would add to the iwi's wounds.
Tuhoe chief negotiator Tamati Kruger said the joke was not funny, in poor taste and unbecoming of a prime minister. Relations with Mr Key were getting worse by the day, he said.
The fresh controversy tops off a bad week for Mr Key's relations with Maori.
On Sunday he pulled the plug on a planned settlement with Tuhoe that would have seen them given sole ownership of the Te Urewera National Park.
Maori party co-leader Tariana Turia criticised Mr Key for canning the settlement with Tuhoe. She was also upset that Mr Key had said she had been "totally fine" over the issue when she was not.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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The only people suggesting that JK was calling them cannibals are those that have taken this phrase so seriously! I don't disagree that it wasn't a particularly "FUNNY" joke. But I do not believe for a second that JK had even thought that it would be taken the way it has been. If he had he would not have made the comment!!! It is completely ridicous how sensitive some people are. As for Hone's comments about white motherf**kers can you imagine if that was reversed and the media attention that would have got!!!! And he wasn't even sorry for that comment. Come on New Zealand when are we going to be able to live as one without all the negative and positive discrimination!!!
@ 219 - You are an idiot.
People need to get over it. It was a joke and most people see it that way.
Hone Haraware can get away with BLATENT racism, but our PM cannot make a lighthearted joke about being eaten for dinner (which IMO probably would have happened).
Stop playing the victim, lighten up and stop being so damn PC.
C'mon, far out.
Why is this country so sensitive. Who gives a toss? People just search for a reason to complain in this country. What the hell is wrong with you people.
Boo Hoo.
@ Ray #212... LOL! i choked on my primo as sandwich because I was laughing so hard! You should go into the comedy buisness!
bob #209 don't be a dropkick bob. Stop whinging. Maori have never been assimilated. Pakeha have occassionally been assimilated though.
how would keys like it if people made fun of the FACT that he is a Jew.like this joke what have a Jews and a apple pie have in common not alot the apple pie dont scream when its put in a oven NOT FUNNEY NOW A MR KEYS
If Hone can say stupid things, why not John key. lol!
It seems to me that too many people are just looking for anything that can be interpretted as being offensive to them. They then use this "faux" offence to coerce an apology or an accomadation, to futher their own pet project. Cynical, maybe, but being offended is become a favourite pastime for many!!
So the racist hone haraware makes a smarmy apology for out and out racist comments and here are the maori sitting, waiting, expecting (just like dole day) apologies from john key for a light hearted joke and the refusal of maori players to travel to south africa. So by all rights all non-maori should be expecting apologies for having a racially selected team. Ha, that would be the day. Life should not be about giving maori second chances at everything in life. Man, since the day Billt T James left this world we turned into an overly P.C country where all non-maori bow down to the demands of maori. This needs to end
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It's the MEDIA that made it into a cannibalism issue. I don't think anyone in Tuhoe truly believes he meant to reference any cannibalistic past!
From what I've read, Tuhoe felt the comment was disrespectful, because he was shunning them - he'd rather not have dinner with Tuhoe.
This is the perfect example of a media beatup.