Craig
McCulloch Deputy Political Editor
Winston
Peters has refused to apologise for his attack on a
Chinese-Kiwi MP despite the prime minister and others
describing his comments as “racist”.
The Foreign
Affairs minister attracted a firestorm of criticism last
week after telling the Greens’ Lawrence Xu-Nan to “go back
to where you’ve come from” during a tirade in
Parliament.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon raised
the matter with the New Zealand First leader on Monday in a
private meeting, after earlier condemning the remarks.
Luxon, however, refused to reveal any details about the
exchange.
Addressing reporters for the first time
since that meeting, Peters also declined to divulge what was
said
behind closed doors.
“We had a meeting with the
prime minister. It’s private and that’s the end of it,” he
said on Tuesday.
Asked whether he would apologise,
Peters instead doubled down, arguing his conduct was
justified given Xu-Nan’s heckling during his speech in
Parliament.
“I was talking about a critical shutdown
and cover-up to do with the Covid inquiry, and all the
people [who] are going to suffer as a consequence.
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“He
was jeering and shouting from my side. I’m not apologising
for them, most certainly not. I’m not apologising on behalf
of all those people who are victims.”
The official
transcript of the Parliamentary debate noted that Xu-Nan
interrupted Peters’ speech by shouting, “Are you
vaccinated?”
Asked whether he had embarrassed New
Zealand with his conduct, Peters ended questions and marched
off into the debating chamber.
Speaking
separately to reporters, National deputy Nicola Willis said
she was disappointed Peters would not
apologise.
“Ultimately it is a matter for Winston
Peters to be accountable for his words in
Parliament.”
Willis said, in her view, the foreign
minister had fallen short of the standards expected of
parliamentarians.
“To question the validity of
someone’s ability to speak based on their country of birth
is really unreasonable, and it has been, of course,
offensive to the Chinese community,” she
said.
“Whether you’re born in China, the UK, India,
you’ve got a very significant contribution that you’re
making to this country.”
The Greens’ co-leader Marama
Davidson said her party had written to Parliament’s Speaker
Gerry Brownlee to request that he require Peters to formally
withdraw his comment and apologise.
“The racism
towards our Green MP was absolutely unacceptable, but it
also has further consequences on the safety of migrant
communities across Aotearoa.”
The letter, provided to
RNZ, said Peters’ ongoing practice of “belittling migrant
MPs” in the debating chamber was “both racist and highly
offensive”.
“When racist language is tolerated in this
House that creates a precedent, and the Green Party is
deeply concerned that toleration of racial abuse in
Parliament encourages and promotes similar language outside
it.”
The letter said the Greens would be pursuing the
matter as a “breach of privilege” if an apology was not
forthcoming.
Davidson said the Greens would not go
into any governing arrangement with New Zealand
First.
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