Post by lennie on Aug 10, 2007 14:41:25 GMT -5
Visiting NZ politician goes AWOL in Indigenous communities
Another political row has broken out in New Zealand over the Maori Party MP who attacked the Howard Government's intervention in Aboriginal communities.
The MP has gone missing from an official parliamentary visit to Melbourne to check out central Australian communities for himself.
Maori Party MP Hone Harawira, the man who recently described Prime Minister John Howard as a "racist bastard", is supposed to be studying justice and electoral issues with a parliamentary select committee.
Instead, he is in Alice Springs talking to Aboriginal groups.
NZ Labour MP Dover Samuels says he should concentrate on issues in his own backyard before taking on the plight of other indigenous groups.
He says New Zealand is facing its own child abuse crisis and it is hypocritical for Mr Harawira to tell Australia how to deal with the issue.
Others want the maverick Maori MP to repay the cost of the taxpayer-funded trip.
Another political row has broken out in New Zealand over the Maori Party MP who attacked the Howard Government's intervention in Aboriginal communities.
The MP has gone missing from an official parliamentary visit to Melbourne to check out central Australian communities for himself.
Maori Party MP Hone Harawira, the man who recently described Prime Minister John Howard as a "racist bastard", is supposed to be studying justice and electoral issues with a parliamentary select committee.
Instead, he is in Alice Springs talking to Aboriginal groups.
NZ Labour MP Dover Samuels says he should concentrate on issues in his own backyard before taking on the plight of other indigenous groups.
He says New Zealand is facing its own child abuse crisis and it is hypocritical for Mr Harawira to tell Australia how to deal with the issue.
Others want the maverick Maori MP to repay the cost of the taxpayer-funded trip.