Nice quote

Adam Bennett reports in the Herald:

However, loudest of all was Rima Taraia who loudly harangued the Prime Minister, asking him “are you scared of me?” and “don’t you want to talk to a Maori?”.

Attempting to shove her way through to Mr Key, she was pushed away several times by police and the Diplomatic Protection Squad.

“I’ve seen it before and they’ll go away when the cameras go away,” Mr Key said.

“The reality is that we’re the Government and we’re getting out there and talking about policies. These people are activists for a small group. That’s okay, they’re entitled to do that and we treat them with respect even if they don’t treat us with respect.”

I like that quote. And this is why the TV news last night was so good.

What I find interesting is that out of the combined group of UNITE activists and Young Labour members who were screaming and shouting, I don’t think a single one of them actually lives in Mana. Some were from Dunedin and some from Auckland, with perhaps a few from Wellington. But are any of them actually voters in the by-election?

It was interesting to observe how Taraia tries to use her ethnicity as a weapon, loudly proclaiming that the PM won’t talk to her because she is Maori and accusing the Police of targeting her because she is Maori. Such antics probably do more to stir up racial tension, than the morons at the National Front ever manage to achieve deliberately.