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November 12, 2015
Rape slur clouding fight for human rights
Waatea Team
Posted On November 12, 2015
Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox says controversy in parliament over John Key’s claims Labour was backing rapists and murderers is clouding the issue of the human rights of New Zealanders in Australian detention centres.
The Speaker, David Carter, yesterday refused to allow women MPs who had been victims of sexual assault to demand an apology from the Prime Minister, prompting a walk out by a number of Labour and Green MPs.
Ms Fox says the Prime Minister’s tactics meant MPs felt they must share their personal histories in order to defend the rights of others.
"It’s been very heavy to work in that environment because of those comments and because of the entire issue and the fact now we’ve drawn the attention away from the reason we started to talk about this and that is the human rights of kiwis in Australia that are being breached by having to serve a double jeopardy sentence and some of them on an island in the middle of bloody nowhere," she says.
Copyright © 2015, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
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