Turia weighs in

Written By: - Date published: 5:05 pm, October 26th, 2007 - 13 comments
Categories: maori party, national - Tags: ,

So now Tariana is calling for a police probe into the Mallard/Henare incident.

Mallard came clean yesteday about his role in the incident but we still haven’t heard much in the way of detail from Tau bar this kind of thing:

“He just said to me ‘come outside’, and I went outside and, in the lobby, we had a bit of a talk and he lost his rag.”

If the Dom is right this morning when it reports that “…Mr Mallard punched Mr Henare, apparently after the National MP grabbed him by the tie” then Tau’s being “economical” with the truth.

Neither MP’s behaviour was appropriate but if one’s to be held to account, both should be.

13 comments on “Turia weighs in ”

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  1. Tane 1
    26 October 2007 at 5:08 pm

    I also find it hard to believe that given Tau’s long history as a brawler he doesn’t know what ‘come outside’ means. There’s a reason National’s being rather quiet on this one.

  2. gobsmacked 2
    26 October 2007 at 5:55 pm

    Yes, everyone’s weighed in: Maori Party, ACT, Greens, the bloke next to me on the bus … but strangely, not National.

    Question for Tau Henare: Did you physically assault Mallard before Mallard punched you?

    Question for John Key: Did you ask Tau Henare that question? If so, what was his answer? And if you know what happened, why aren’t you sharing it with the rest of us?

  3. Insolent Prick 3
    26 October 2007 at 6:12 pm

    There is an ever-so-teeny weeny flaw in your argument. Trevor Mallard himself has accepted full responsibility for the incident. He went over with Cullen to personally apologise to Tau, and held a press conference saying that he was the culpable party, and said it was the stupidest thing he’s ever done in his life.

    Tau has said he has accepted Trevor’s apology.

    Only the most venal Labour Party spin would try and turn this any other way. Not even Trevor is trying to claim Tau provoked the incident.

  4. Benodic 4
    26 October 2007 at 6:21 pm

    And you don’t think Trevor’s apology could have been tactical? As the minister he has more to lose, and frankly the public should expect better of him. I think it made sense for him to be upfront and apologise. Whether that means Tau isn’t guilty of a bit of dodgy behaviour himself is another story altogether.

  5. all_your_base 5
    26 October 2007 at 6:29 pm

    IP, I’m not making an “argument”. I simply think that Tau should be straight – after all, Mallard has been.

  6. gobsmacked 6
    26 October 2007 at 6:42 pm

    IP: Mallard is entirely culpable for his action. Henare is also entirely culpable for his action. There is no contradiction there whatsoever.

    We know what Mallard did. We don’t know what Henare did. And he doesn’t seem too keen to tell us.

    If one action is bad, and another action is worse, the worse action does not mean the other action did not happen.

    What exactly did happen in the lobby? And what’s wrong with wanting to know?

  7. Policy Parrot 7
    26 October 2007 at 9:13 pm

    Interesting stance from Tariana considering she called the “police raids” in Ruatoki “outrageously overdone” – in circumstances possibly involving semi-automatic weapons and motive to use them.

    Yet she now calls for police involvement in a political stoush that sounds like it was “more bluster than blows”. And here, she wants the police to prosecute.

    Hypocrisy indeed. Tariana should quit parliament – she is doing the Maori Party and its constituents much harm with her rabid anti-Labour agenda.

  8. Leftie 8
    27 October 2007 at 12:55 am

    Gobsmacked I agree.
    We don’t know the finer details. It has been revealed that Tau grabbed Trevor’s tie first. What else don’t we know?
    I too am suspicious of National’s uncharacteristic quiet about this one. They are normally wade into any controversy, balls and all.

  9. Insolent Prick 9
    27 October 2007 at 10:17 am

    PP

    Why would Tariana leave Parliament? That’s preposterous. The Maori Party have 21,000 members. That’s four times more than the Labour Party. She led the Maori Party to stunning successes in the 2005 election: unlike your party, PP, she didn’t have to steal vast sums of taxpayer money to do it.

    Her MPs consistently perform far better, more effectively, and work much harder than the dullards in Labour’s Maori caucus. She’s on track to sweep all Maori constituency seats, to an extent that even Labour’s only Maori star, Shane Jones, is contemplating standing in a general Labour seat.

    Coolest wordcheck anti-spam thing words ever, given the topic: “heard Brenda”. I shit you not.

  10. the sprout 10
    27 October 2007 at 9:11 pm

    yes it’s high time Tau Henare fronted up to this and came clean.

    and yeah how rich of Tariana to be so precious about not arresting ‘political activists’ for arms offences at the least, but insisting politicians be immediately charged.

  11. Robinsod 11
    28 October 2007 at 6:39 pm

    The handling of Mallard’s apology is just another example of Labour’s dreadful spin. This was an issue of mutual accountability in which Tau committed the first assault but rather than call him out for that they’ve tried to “move on” – at some stage they’ll realise these battles are better fought on the front foot rather than dealt with via damage control. Sometimes I think they’ve been broken by the Nat’s dogging tactics to the point where they’ll forever be on the defensive. As centrist as they are they owe the left more than that.

  12. Murray M 12
    28 October 2007 at 9:45 pm

    I know one person called Tane, he is a useless, methadone dependant, dope smoking, Sky TV watching, Nasdag betting, invalid fucking beneficiary. Putting the blame on the victim as opposed to the aggresor doesn’t quite fit in with his persona. I guess it’s not the same Tane.

  13. Robinsod 13
    28 October 2007 at 9:50 pm

    Yo Muz – you seem to be an angry drunk. Have you thought about getting some help with that?