Thursday, November 5, 2009

Hone tries to swat media mozzie's away

The media have a bee in their bonnet about so called troughers - I suppose it sells papers. I don't think Hone has done anything wrong by taking a detour (paid for by himself) to go to paris with his wife, while in europe on parlimentary business - but if anything he is too honest. Update - It appears that hone told his party he was sick and that was why he couldn't attend the sessions. Sorry hone that is below the standard i expect.

From colin espiner's blog
"MEDIA RELEASE

Thursday 05 November 2009
Hone Harawira, Maori Party MP for Te Tai Tokerau

TO PARIS OR NOT TO PARIS
Last month I was up in Europe as part of a parliamentary delegation to the European parliament, and while there decided to take the opportunity to skip away to Paris for a day. Now it seems like everyone back here is all in a tizz about it - so here's the scoops.
I met with the person chairing the meeting, the night before I went to Paris, and we discussed a wide range of issues that would be coming up the next day, including trade, illegal immigration, parliamentary activities, local government, music, art, history, travel, and other matters of interest (including the imminent visit of the All Blacks).
I also talked with other MPs and officials who would be at the meeting the following day, and discussed a number of issues including sporting relationships and European perceptions of New Zealand.
And I met with one of the European MPs from Finland with whom I discussed the similarities between the Saami people and Maori, and made tentative arrangements for a future visit to Finland to see how the Saami parliament was run.
Because of the range of issues we had discussed, I decided to ask the chairperson whether she would mind if I skipped the next day and went to Paris. When my request was translated for her she burst out laughing and said how she'd love to come but she had the meeting to chair, so I told her I would make up for it by introducing her to some All Blacks when she came down here!! She positively glowed with happiness at the thought, so after all the speeches were over I did the honourable thing and closed the evening with a haka which brought the house down.


AND YOUR QUESTIONS ARE ...

Did you go to Paris outside of formal arrangements of the delegation? Yes.

Did you consider your Paris excursion to be a breach of parliamentary protocol? Yes, but not a breach of the requirements of the trip because I discussed the issues which would come up the next day with the chairperson and other European MPs before going.

Did you miss anything from the meeting you didn't attend? No. I checked later and found out that most of the issues that were discussed, I'd canvassed with MPs the night before.

Did you think your Paris excursion was a drain on the NZ taxpayer? No. I paid for that part of my trip myself.

Do you think you should have to pay any of my trip costs back to parliament? No - given that I notified the chairperson before going to Paris, covered all the issues before going, and have had follow up contact with European MPs who were there about future activities.

Is this the same as your trip to Alice Springs? No. Different place, different time, different issues.

Would you do it again? Hard to say. You take the action you consider to be appropriate at the time, but I wouldn't rule it out.

Any chance of you getting another overseas trip? That's for somebody else to say.

Did you enjoy your day in Paris? Hell yes. A man would be dumb to go to Europe and not take the opportunity to visit such a wonderful city and see such iconic places and images. I'm glad I did it.

Any flak from your party leaders about it? No. Not yet.

Any adverse reaction from your constituents? No, not at all. In fact, every comment I have had has been really, really positive. In fact one Pakeha lady stopped me to say she loved my article about the Paris trip and said she could picture the places I talked about as I described them. The only adverse comments I've had are from the press."

Just think about what Hone did - he strengthened bonds between this country and the delegates he met and talked to. He charmed them, he did a haka, he made them smile. That is the sort of stuff that builds strong relationships and that is good for us all. He did a hell of a lot more for us than key's embarrasing performance on letterman.
I hope Hone stays in politics. And if does I hope he tidys up his act - you can't lie to your party.

File under media beatup to distract from other issues and a mistake from a person who should know better.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Marty - do not agree Hone went off to Paris when he was meant to be at a meeting that was part of his visit. No problem with him visiting Paris AFTER his officiasl duties were over

Ana said...

Who cares if Hone went to Paris. With Maori unemployment going through the roof & his party becoming more & more complicit with National/Acts right wing agenda for NZ you would think he would have more important things to spend his time & comment on.

Marty Mars said...

Kia ora anon and ana

yes anon i think that is a fair point and it ties into ana's point and the real concern about what has happened to the maori party. I wish we heard more from hone on the real issues facing maori, especially with the way the maori party has slid into the government - what the hell does hone think of that? We need him to take the reins more instead of leaving it up to others. Start putting some lines in the sand and start taking stands for our people. Hone does represent his electorate but there is a bit more to it than that. We need maori leaders who will fight for our people, who aren't afraid of the bigots and racists and who don't buy the neo-con bullshit - You used to fight those battles - are you still one of those men hone?

Anonymous said...

It is a bit of a beatup isn't it. WHY is the brown fella being asked to pay back what would likely be in the hundreds while that fatass gimp Hide rorts us all for 50k and nobody says a word about paying it back!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous

The trip didn't cost $50k to start with and unlike Hone, Hide actually met his obligations of attendance on tour.

Oh....and then didn't front in a t-shirt and shorts to the media and act like nothing was wrong.

"who aren't afraid of the bigots and racists" - that's a bit steep after Hone and Buddy's racist outbursts at each other via email.

You can't shout racism when your own lot are bagging "white mofo's"!!!

I think Maori need to realise that the "white Mofos" are fast seeing through them as being the peaceful victimised lot that you say they are.

Anonymous said...

Hone showed a few lapses in judgement - not waiting till the end of the trip to go to Paris, not telling the Party and thinking that Buddy Mikaere was person worth communicating with.

Not saying that Hone was wise to use the language he did - but heaps of Maori feel that sense of disenfranchisment Hone expressed and who the F**K is that nark Buddy Mikaere to forward the e-mail on. First Buddy's e-mail to Hone was insulting and second - who are you Buddy? What have you done for Maori? - and I don't mean what goverment jobs have you had - if you did not agree you could have kept the correspondence private and just put your point of view back the other way.

my vote is for Hone and Buddy can crawl back into the hole he came from the attention seeking pratt that he is.