Maori Party MP Hone Harawira could have some explaining to do after a strongly worded email he sent to a critic of his sightseeing trip to Paris.
Former Waitangi Tribunal director Buddy Mikaere wrote an email to Harawira complaining about his actions.
"... you're no better than that w***er Rodney Hide and the white mofos you complain about," Mikaere wrote, referring to Hide's actions in taking his partner on an overseas ministerial trip despite the Prime Minister John Key's direction against the practice.
"And get off your moral high horse while you're at it - nobody forced you to be an MP."
In the strongly-worded reply, in which he used expletives, Harawira responded by saying Maori have been exploited for centuries and he could not be expected to play along with puritanical ideals.
"White motherf***ers have been raping our lands and ripping us off for centuries and all of a sudden you want me to play along with their puritanical bullsh*t," Harawira wrote.
He then went on to say how much time and energy he put into fighting for Maori and what a big role his wife Hilda played in that.
"And quite frankly I don't give a sh*t what you or anyone else thinks about it. OK?"
Then he added a postscript saying he should feel free to go to the media.
"I answer to my people, not to them or to anybody else."
Harawira came under fire on Thursday when it was revealed that he took a sightseeing trip to Paris with his wife, when he was supposed to attend a European parliamentary delegation meeting in Brussels.
Asked if what he did was inappropriate, he says he did nothing wrong.
He says he is a hard working MP who takes the opportunity for time out when it is available, which he says is a rarity.
It is not the first time the MP has mixed business and pleasure - he had to pay back more than $1,000 in 2007 when he left a trip to Alice Springs early.
Harawira says he does not think most New Zealanders mind his trips, though that does not seem to be the opinion of his party.
Leader's concerns
Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia says she is concerned that Harawira's unscheduled side trip will damage the party's reputation.
"All of us have to be really conscious as to the perception that's created as to how we use public funds, the public doesn't actually fund us to go on holidays and to have a look around and that's the reality."
Turia had understood the reason Harawira did not attend the meeting, part of the New Zealand delegation's scheduled business, was because he was sick.
"I'm very concerned, my understanding was he was ill over in Brussels, but it would appear... that he went off to Paris for a trip, that it was quite a deliberate thing," she told Radio New Zealand.
"The worry for me is that Hone was the leader of that delegation and I guess that what we are going to be questioned about in future, in terms of any trips overseas, is that 'can we give a guarantee that this won't happen again, it happened in Australia?' And with hand over heart I don't think we can give that guarantee."
The Prime Minister has described Harawira's comments as inappropriate and offensive to a lot New Zealanders.
John Key says it is up to Maori Party leadership to deal with it.
Meanwhile, Mikaere says the Maori Party will no longer be getting his vote, saying Harawira is not fit to be an MP and should resign.
Mikaere says that he thought his email was light-hearted but was not surprised by Harawira's reaction, saying he had an aggressive personality.
However, the language and racial comments did shock him.
"I don't think it befits any politician to talk like that to anybody whatever the provocation. There is no excuse for talking like that," he said.
You can read Hon Harawira's email in full
here
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