PETER WILLIAMS: Who can be a racist?

It's not about ethnicity. It's about your politics.

In my not entirely successful career as a radio talk show host, a few encounters remain fresh in the memory.

One was with former Te Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira during the time of the Ihumatao land occupation near Auckland Airport in 2019.

You’ll remember Fletcher Building bought the land off a farmer and planned to build about 500 houses on it, including some set aside especially for members of local iwi.

But some Maori protested the sale and the plans, because they believed it was Maori land and should be returned to Maori, although which Maori has never been successfully resolved.

Seven years on there’s still no housing there. It’s a testament to government incompetence.

The protest became very messy with police at one stage attempting to forcibly remove the occupiers.

One of the more staunch of the protestors was Anikaaro Harawira-Havili. During the protest she told a uniformed and sworn officer of the New Zealand Police to “f**k off back to your own country.”

That police officer was of Indian ethnicity.

During my interview with Hone Harawira, he admitted the utterer of the infamous comment was his daughter, he was proud of her and what she said wasn’t racist.

Hmm.

That’s because, according to Hone, Maori cannot be racists in their own country.

So on that score what Winston Peters said in Parliament last week to Green MP Lawrence Xu-nan cannot possibly be racist because Winston is Maori and he’s in his own country.

But Winston is a conservative heterosexual politician. Mr Xu-nan is gay and leans politically to the far left. So therefore he mustn’t be insulted, especially by an old man like Winston Peters.

In reality what both Ms Harawira and the Foreign Minister said in their respective forums was despicable and out of order. Nobody whose a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident deserves to be spoken to in that manner.

Anybody who commits to New Zealand through a career in law enforcement like the Indian police officer or political service like the Green MP should feel immensely insulted by both Harawira’s and Peters’ comments.

However this is a country where freedom of speech is an absolute right. The right to freely express opinions, insult and offend others AND to be offended and insulted by those opinions is inherent in the Bill of Rights Act.

But being offended and being insulted is no reason for people to lose jobs or lose rights or freedoms, unless that offense or insult is inciting violence.

Which is pretty close to what the Migrant Workers Association of Aotearoa were doing with the mock execution of an effigy of Peters in Auckland on Saturday.

They didn’t like what Peters said to Xu-nan so Peters had to be for the chop.

The MWAA, as exposed by Ani O’Brien, is a collection of ardent lefty union activists like Joe Carolan and Mike Treen with a close association to Green MP Ricardo Menendez March.

It’s very name suggests it backs the rights of migrant workers in New Zealand to not be insulted or offended.

I don’t know whether they existed in 2019. Even if they did I could never imagine them holding a mock execution of Anikaaro Harawira-Havili.

Because she has a right to be racist – even to a migrant worker.

But Winston doesn't.

It’s a weird world.

Writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. Subscribe to Peter William's Substack here