Hone Harawira

Wellington, Nov 9 NZPA - Pressure is building for Maori Party MP Hone Harawira to give a full apology for racist remarks about white people.

A hui will decide on Thursday how Mr Harawira can atone for skipping off to Paris while on a parliamentary trip to Brussels and then responding to criticism with an offensive outburst.

Responding to an email questioning his actions, Mr Harawira said it was "white man's bullshit" and "White motherf...ers have been raping our lands and ripping us off for centuries".

Maori Party leadership decided yesterday it wasn't going to sack him but appeared to at least expect a public apology from the Te Tai Tokerau (Northland) MP.

"I think he will find a way to apologise to the nation," said party president Whatarangi Winiata.

"We will help him do that."

However, party co-leader Pita Sharples said he wouldn't order an apology.

"An apology is something from the heart and the mind and I'm not going to tell someone they have to apologise," he said on Radio Live.

"I can say it's my wish that they would but you can't order someone to apologise."

Prime Minister John Key said he thought an apology was needed.

"I definitely think he owes a bit of an apology," Mr Key said on TVNZ's Breakfast programme.

"It's for the Maori Party leadership to sort that out, and I have got to say they are doing their best to try and deal with that situation."

Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres also called for an apology, and suggested on Radio New Zealand this morning that Mr Harawira deliver that in Parliament.

The commission received more than 20 complaints about the email but said yesterday Mr Harawira's language did not breach to Human Rights Act.

Mr Harawira was part of a parliamentary delegation visiting Europe when he decided to leave Brussels and take his wife to Paris for the day.

He was unrepentant about that, saying he paid for it himself, but he is reported to have misled Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia over it.

Subsequently, former Waitangi Tribunal director Buddy Mikaere sent Mr Harawira an email questioning the Paris trip.

In response, Mr Harawira sent an email saying: "Gee Buddy, do you believe that white man's bullshit too? 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 bullshit."

Mr Key said there was "a tinge of racism in those comments".

"He's a shock jock kind of MP... the problem is he says things and does things that are a bit outrageous."

One person not calling for an apology was former Labour MP Dover Samuels, who previously held the Te Tai Tokerau seat Mr Harawira now represents.

"Any apology from Hone would be absolute hypocrisy, he's advocating what he really believes in, he's done that for many, many years before going into Parliament," Mr Samuels told Radio New Zealand.

"Any apology that he would make would be artificial, superficial and he actually doesn't believe it."

Mr Harawira "absolutely" believed in what he said about white people, Mr Samuels said.

"A lot of the people that are sitting with him in the Parliament believe the same thing."

He said the Maori Party had separatist policies and should elect Mr Harawira leader and be honest about their views.

"At least ... he's got up and had the guts to actually say what he feels inside."

Mr Key did not think other Maori MPs shared Mr Harawira's views.

"We formed a relationship with the Maori Party, National and the Maori Party, to improve race relations in New Zealand, because we are both committed to building a harmonious New Zealand."

Mr Key also said the issue of bunking off to Paris during a work trip needed to be addressed.

In 2007 Mr Harawira was told to pay back some flights after he left mid-way through a four-day select committee trip to Melbourne, so he could visit Aboriginal groups in Alice Springs.

Speaker Lockwood Smith has said he may need to pay back some of the latest trip's costs because of his actions, although he did pay for the extra leg himself.