Father defends son

The father of a two-year-old boy who raised the ire of a Labour MP on an Auckland-Wellington flight says his son made only "a bit of a squawk every now and again".

Yesterday, Labour list MP Charles Chauvel laughed off claims that he had over-reacted by saying "I wish those kids would shut up" about Fred Phillips' three children.

Phillips said Chauvel had made the comment twice and, just as they were about to land on Sunday night, the MP had said: "I don't know why they let them there on the plane", or words to that effect. Chauvel denies he made the latter comment.

The story prompted many comments on Fairfax's stuff.co.nz website yesterday. Chauvel won support from several readers who said they were often frustrated by noisy children on aircraft.

Chauvel suggested the story had been pushed by a Right-wing agenda.

"I didn't realise that an ACT blogger was their parent, so I guess if you want to make a story of it, there you go," he said.

Phillips, a former ACT member, said it would be "drawing a long bow" to suggest he was politically motivated.

"I think the comments were out of line. It's not something that a public figure should be saying within earshot of everyone else on the plane," he said.

His children had been "absolutely fine" on the flight.

"Look, I'm the first person to step in and tell my kids to calm down. I have a low threshold for that," he said. Chauvel's comments were "petulant, snide and backhanded".

"If he had a problem, which I don't think he should have, there would be much better ways of raising it and dealing with it, and I would have expected someone of his public standing to be able to do that," Phillips said.

Chauvel said he had made a single comment to his partner, who was sitting next to him on the plane. "I certainly was on a flight with some pretty badly behaved kids and I did turn to my partner and say, `Gee, I wish those kids would shut up'," he said.

Most of the other passengers were annoyed by the noise of the children, he said. "It would have been nice if the parents had kept the kids better amused rather than behaving the way they were."

Air New Zealand did not respond to questions.

- © Fairfax NZ News