A Maori Party member in the far north has leapt to the defence of local MP Hone Harawira over his support for the blokes on trial for attacking the Prime Minister at Waitangi.
Waatea News today reported that Harawira had been at the Kaitaia courthouse this week to hear his nephews John and Wikatana Popata plead not guilty to assaulting John Key of February 6.
Labour list MP Kelvin Davis apparently criticised Harawira for trivialising what happened at Waitangi.
But former Te Rarawa chairperson Malcolm Pere, who at one time sought selection as the Maori Party’s Taitokerau candidate, says Mr Harawira’s job is to be a voice for Maori.
“There’s many shades in being Maori today and a lot of them is anger, and you can’t address anger by just telling people off. You’ve got to be with them, and I think that’s what Hone, Hone will go down the road to actually pick people up,” he says.
Mr Pere says by working with National, the Maori Party may be able to address the root causes of Maori anger.
Alf is apt to get angry too, on occasion.
But he doesn’t expect to get away with using his anger as a justification for bopping people.
Alf Grumble 