November 17, 2021
No room for threats in Covid debate
Māori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer says any threats against politicians should be reported and acted on.
Labour whip Kieran McAnulty has asked Parliamentary Services to review security for MPs after he was threatened at his Masterton mobile office by former ad-man turned anti-vaxxer John Ansell, the creator of National’s 2005 iwi vs kiwi billboard campaign.
Ms Ngarewa Packer says saying such conflict is part of politics is to normalise it.
“As we’ve seen on the paepae, you go hard on the kaupapa, not the tangata. We need to return to some of our own ways and have the pakanga in the right forum. There’s a lot of looseness and a lot of mad, sad and bad going on at the moment and everyone needs to take a big breather and lead by example and just kati the ahua kino,” she says.
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer says people should also refrain from using violent language on social media, because it’s a short path to physical abuse.