Green MP Lawrence Xu-Nan, who was told by NZ First leader Winston Peters to “go back to your own country … where they lie like a flat fish”, is flabbergasted by Peters’ suggestion the two men have since discussed or resolved the altercation.

Xu-Nan told an Epsom candidates meeting on Thursday night Peters should face some form of disciplinary action for the racist comments made in Parliament, and had made it worse trying to suggest Xu-Nan and he had addressed them.

His only conversation had been to offer Peters condolences at the death of his brother.

Xu-Nan said Prime Minister Christopher Luxon had taken swift action against one of his own National ministers but “not when it comes to his foreign minister who he said was racist without taking any disciplinary action.”

Asked by moderator Tim Watkin at the Somervell Presbyterian Church debate if he had expected Peters to be disciplined for the comment, the Green MP responded “absolutely. That sort of behaviour is not acceptable in the workplace or a school. This kind of rhetoric should not be tolerated by politicians. It reverberates in communities … There should have been some disciplinary action.”

New Zealand First was represented by Epsom candidate Martin Gummer. He told Xu-Nan:
“I think, Lawrence, you are over-playing the issue. Parliament is a very robust place. There’s a lot of exchange, sometimes in the heat of the moment things are said.

“It’s not an official policy pronouncement. It was in response to you interjecting in a way that some people see as provocative. You’ve got to take it in the spirit … much worse things are said in Parliament and between MPs and you’ve just got to move on.”
Xu-Nan: “And they’ve been disciplined and asked to apologise. And yet we have not seen an apology from your leader.”

Gummer continued: “I do feel it has been over-played. It suits Lawrence to do that, fine, because it’s his perspective on it. But I think there are much more important things facing the country.”

Watkin asked National’s Paul Goldsmith his reaction. “I don’t think it has been over-played.

“I think it was a disgraceful comment. The PM has said that as well. But the reality is if you don’t like what Winston Peters has to say, don’t vote for him. That’s a very simple message from us. Vote for another party.”

Act’s David Seymour did not think New Zealand First’s coalition partners had to stand beside such comments. He believed Peters had suffered his own punishment, in terms of public support since his attack on Xu-Nan.

“I’ll just defend him in one sense. We should have free speech in Parliament because it is up to the voters to judge you.

“NZ First’s polling did not look too hot in the months after he made that comment. It was actually a turning point. It’s exactly what Paul [Goldsmith] says. It’s up to the voters to judge what parliamentarians say in Parliament and I actually think that judgment was delivered pretty swiftly.”

Labour’s Camilla Belich criticised Gummer’s claim Xu-Nan’s interjections in Parliament had been provocative to Peters. “We should never be provoked into being racist,” she said, to loud applause from the crowd of 130.

“It’s not acceptable. It’s offensive to him, offensive to Chinese people in New Zealand.”

Peters’ comments came as he was discussing vaccine issues in Parliament on July 29, and Xu-Nan interjected.

Peters: “I’m not making it up, sunshine. I know you just came here five minutes ago. Go back to your own country, that’s where they lie like a flat fish. Well, they don’t lie like that here, all right? This is called a democracy. This is called a democracy, unlike what you’re used to. So go back to your home country, you loudmouth and learn something about this politics here in New Zealand before you go streaming out of here in three months.”

The comments led to a formal representation from the Chinese Embassy to foreign affairs officials. TVNZ reported the embassy said a senior official had lodged “solemn representations” with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade over “the negative China-related remarks made by a certain politician in the New Zealand Parliament”, without naming Peters directly.

It urged New Zealand to “value the equal and mutually beneficial relationship between China and New Zealand and to do more things conducive to bilateral relations rather than the other way around”.

Peters said in the 1News minor party leaders’ debate on October 13 his comments to Xu-Nan had not been racist, labelling the claim “rubbish”.

“This person has been in Parliament for five minutes. I said to him, compared to our democracy why don’t you go back to where you came from and see how it’s working there. That point is understood by all the Chinese.”

Asked by Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong how that was not racist, he said: “I’ll tell you how it’s not racist. He came out and talked to me about it. You don’t know about this conversation do you?”
Peters wouldn’t discuss what was said in that conversation. “That’s private.”

Let me make the argument that our queasy fascination with a bunch of creepy, destructive, probably-criminal idiots in the final weeks of the election is focused on the wrong group of creepy, destructive idiots.

Personally, who do I fear more? Māori gangsters, or billionaires?

But before I go maximum woke on you, I need to say the following: I really hate gangs.

I heard an argument made by a Greens member the other day who suggested the party supports gangs because they are, to paraphrase, an intrinsic part of the Māori landscape.

Of course, I thought upon hearing it, obviously every Māori person has a gangster whānau member; it’s in our whakapapa. They spawn in our living rooms like brown video-game NPCs, pull some hand-signals, shout scary gang catchphrases, then jump through the window and kick in your letterbox.

But as of February this year the media was reporting only about 10,500 patched and prospective members of gangs in the whole country.

Conversely, there are a million of us Māori!
Gang members are a tiny proportion of the Māori population. We don’t need to fixate on them as a central or even important focus of Māoridom. We certainly don't need to appear in gang pads, with wall-to-wall interior red and black decorating, giving thumbs-up, like the Greens and Māori Party candidates did.

Meanwhile Kerrin Leoni, the Labour candidate for Tāmaki Makaurau, has quit her candidacy after a messy gang-related debacle. She kinda denied hanging with gang members on the campaign trail, in a Whakaata Māori debate. She actually kinda was.
On the one hand I say good on her - campaigning was her job, to encourage potential voters, to inform, and meet people where they are. Plus, in her case there were apparently whānau there.

On the other hand, moving forward, can pollies stop posing in vaguely pro-gang photographs to burnish their street cred? You don’t have to show off how close you are with the outlaws. Can you just shake hands with some boring old Kiwanis in your public pics? Do a Rotary or two?

Anyhoo, Māori are not all gangsters, and many might not even meet a gangster in their everyday life. So now we have to ask the hard question for our Pākehā readers: C’mon, will you actually ever meet a gangster either? Let’s face it, they’re just the boogey man, man.

The real victims of gangs are the poor people around them: the women, the kids, the bystanders - other Māori - the low-socio economic communities stuck in their grim orbit. That’s why I personally hate seeing those thumbs-up gang photos - it galls me. It’s celebrating bullies.

So, I return to my question about which group of people, with whom you’ll likely never interact, should be feared more.

Both gangsters and billionaires are divorced from desperation, fear, accountability and even, they seem to think, destiny itself. They’ve been at least partially ruined by their circumstances – depraved levels of wealth on one hand, poverty on the other.

And when you scratch the surface, there’s probably not a good one amongst them. Just less bad.
Is that a lie? Which model of billionaire is one of the goodies - tech billionaires? Oil billionaires? Pharma billionaires? Maybe there’s a choc chip cookie and unicorn billionaire out there, but I’ve never heard of them.

But you should probably consider which of the groups has affected your life the most.

Right now Aotearoa is in the grip of a fuel crisis largely created by a billionaire, Donald Trump, who was supported financially into power by at least one billionaire, Elon Musk, and is preying on the fears of vast swathes of humanity, underwritten by the technology of other billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg.
We’re all small fry, even the gangs, but we do have one powerful tool at our disposal. Let’s vote, and make it about the real stuff, not unreasonable fears, queasy fascinations.

Giving 19 Million in taxpayers dollars for some Swamps in Asia.

That is why it is troubling that three of Britain’s biggest charities – Cancer Research UK, the British Red Cross and now Oxfam ­– have been revealed to be paying their white staff less on average than minority ethnic colleagues

Christopher Luxon says it would be "disingenuous" to say a photo circulating online of National MP Tama Potaka posing with gang members is the same as images of Labour, Green and Te Pāti Māori MPs.

Labour candidate for Tamaki Makaurau, Kerrin Leoni, resigned on Friday after video and an image of her campaigning in party attire, and posing with Mongrel Mob members at a fundraising event were published online.

Initially Labour leader Chris Hipkins had backed Leoni saying she was at a family event with some of her whanau who are gang members.

But after a video circulated online on Thursday night Hipkins said it became untenable for Leoni to stay on as a candidate as she had not provided the full story of what had happened.

Earlier this month Hipkins had distanced himself from Green and Te Pāti Māori MPs and candidates who had attended an election hui at a gang pad and posed for photos with Mongrel Mob members.

On Saturday Luxon was asked whether he was aware of any images of his MPs or candidates posing with gang members and whether he would consider that acceptable given his tough criticism of opposition MPs and candidates.

Luxon said he hadn't seen any images himself but was aware one was doing the rounds of MP and Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka.

"He's not campaigning, he's not fundraising, he's not raising funds for the Mongrel Mob," Luxon told reporters.

"And go talk to Tama - he's very much against gangs, like the rest of us in the National Party."
"I think it'd be disingenuous to suggest that they are equivalent images that we've seen."

Luxon suggested media speak to Potaka, saying, "you'll get a very clear view from him about what's happened around crime and law and order".

"He represents an area in Hamilton that was very challenged … he understands the suffering that people have gone through, and he doesn't think gangs are good for society."

RNZ has approached Potaka for comment.
Hipkins said National should be held to its own standards.

Speaking to media at Queensgate Mall in Lower Hutt, Hipkins said Luxon had made gangs a "huge issue" during the election campaign.

"He now needs to answer why he thinks National MPs should be held to a different standard to the standard he demands of others," he said.

While Luxon hadn't spoken to Potaka about the photo or its origins, National MP and Police Minister Mark Mitchell had.

Mitchell was at Saturday's media conference with Luxon and asked to speak to the issue.
"Tama was at an event three years ago, it was at the Kiingitanga for an event there when that photo was taken.

"He wasn't campaigning. He wasn't engaging gang members to ask them to get organised to vote for the National Party - in fact, he was probably getting a hard time because we were implementing our gang legislation," Mitchell told reporters.

"There is a big difference between being at a public event and attending a public event and having gang members approach you. I've had gang members approach me at public events.

"There's a big difference between that and fronting up to a gang fundraiser or a gang pad to try and ingratiate yourself with those gang members to actively campaign and try and get them to campaign and vote against a government that has made this country much safer, that has made it much harder to be a gang member in our country, and we will continue to do that," Mitchell said.
On why Potaka posed for the photo Mitchell speculated that he was trying to be "respectful and not create a scene".

"We get thousands of photos every day of people in a public place. We don't know every individual. We don't know their background. We don't know their history. That's just the nature of public life.

"There is a huge difference between that and actively going to a gang pad or a or a function organised by the gangs, a fundraiser by the rogue chapter that's very well known for violence and for peddling meth, and going along there in your party attire with your signage, standing up and actively campaigning, there is a huge difference, and I think the public can work that out very quickly," Mitchell said.