Defending Helen

I’m going to defend Helen on this one.

The Leprosy Mission New Zealand is demanding an apology from the PM for saying that Fijian coup leader Frank Bainimarama would be “treated something like a leper” if he attended the Pacific Islands Forum meetings.

Certainly in hindsight one might not use that exact phrasing, but I think most NZers understand the phrase in its generic sense of someone to be shunned, rather than an explicit commentary on how to deal with people like leprosy.

As far as I know, leprosy is not at all prevalent in NZ. It would be different if Helen was PM of a country such as India where they have 200,000 or so cases.

I’m not saying the leper line is something one would want to keep using. Just that demanding an apology for it is a bit over the top.