Henare’s row

Anna Leask at the NZ Herald reports:

A furious Auckland mum has complained to the Prime Minister and police after an “abusive and degrading” driving incident involving National MP Tau Henare.

Cicelia Holliday told the Herald she was “absolutely gobsmacked” by the incident and wants Mr Henare to be called to account for his behaviour. …

She said she was driving with her 12-year-old daughter along Ash St in Avondale just after 10.30am last Thursday when a car in the lane beside her suddenly pulled in front of her without indicating the lane change.

“I reacted by quickly blaring my horn to draw attention to the fact that they had created a ‘near miss’,” she wrote to Mr Key.

“I noticed the driver give me the finger though the driver’s window and I couldn’t quite believe it. Then he gave me the finger through the rear window with his left hand.”

Mrs Holliday then noticed the red Audi stationwagon carried Mr Henare’s name and photograph and the National Party logo.

Both drivers stopped at a red light, and Mrs Holliday said Mr Henare wound down his window and started to shout at her.

“He started going on about ‘what happened to common courtesy’ … repeatedly talking over me when I tried to ask him why he hadn’t indicated his intention to move across the lane in front of me.

“He shouted, ‘Do you expect me to stop and let about 10 cars go past?’ and I said, ‘I expect you to indicate your intention to change lanes’.”

The light turned green and Mr Henare drove away.

“I am a National Party supporter, but Mr Henare’s behaviour was reprehensible, to say the least – both his driving and his finger-signing,” Mrs Holliday wrote.

Mr Henare laughed when approached about the complaint, and refused to comment.

“I’m not going to respond to it, quite frankly, I’ll just leave it,” he said.

Mr Henare said he had seen the complaint and knew it had been sent to the police.

When told it had also been sent to the Prime Minister, he said: “The police are more important in this respect. I’m not going to deal with it through the media.”

There are two sides to every incident, so I can’t comment on the specifics of this incident except to say that it is a reminder that not all publicity is good publicity.

But it does remind me of an conversation I had some years ago with an MP, about what changes being elected had meant. They replied that one of the changes was that if some moron cuts you off in traffic (not suggesting this is what happened in this case), you can’t honk your horn or gesture at them as you might once have.

I recall thinking it was another good reason for me to not stand for Parliament!

UPDATE: Tau disputes the claims. Also Whale has linked to other complaints from the complainant about road safety.