Hone Harawira

Hone Pani Tamati Waka Nene Harawira is a New Zealand politician. He was elected to the New Zealand Parliament for the Māori Electorate of Te Tai Tokerau in the 2005 general election as the Māori Party candidate.

Early years

Born in Whangarei in 1955 and raised in West Auckland, Harawira attended St Stephens School and Auckland University, but credits people like Muhammad Ali, Syd Jackson, Nelson Mandela, Maori Marsden, his mum and his wife for teaching him the need for strength, commitment and vision.

His mother is descended from Ngāti Hau, Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Hine; his father from Te Aupouri, Ngapuhi & Ngati Whatua. His wife Hilda is from Ngāti Haua.

Activist

Harawira is the son of well-known Māori activist, Titewhai Harawira, and has played a major role in treaty issues, language revitalisation, land occupations, Maori broadcasting and fighting racism both in New Zealand and abroad. In 1979 Harawira was part of a group who confronted University of Auckland engineering students who performed a parody of Ka Mate with obscenities painted on their bodies, while drunk. The group containing Harawira assaulted them with baseball bats and hoses, resulting in several broken bones. He was a key player in He Taua the 1981 Springbok Tour, and the 2004 Foreshore and Seabed Hikoi which led to his entering parliament.

Although he has a reputation for aggressive and sometimes violent behaviour, Harawira has only one conviction, for assault in 1981; the sentence was suspended because of racist provocation. Harawira says that he is no longer as rash as he once was, “I am comfortable trying to work towards a positive future rather than simply knocking things down. When I was younger, knocking things down was pretty much everything." Harawira is a racict poohskin bully and has no more rights than any other person born in NZ. He is an embarrasment to New Zealand and his political party.

Member of Parliament

New Zealand Parliament

Years	Term	Electorate	List	Party
2005–2008	48th	Te Tai Tokerau	none		Māori Party
2008–present	49th	Te Tai Tokerau	3		Māori Party

Since entering parliament Harawira has continued in his tradition as a rebel, breaking protocol to open parliament in Maori, saying the former Australian Prime Minister “John Howard is a racist bastard" for his intervention into Aboriginal Affairs, being fined for leaving a planned parliamentary overseas tour to make headlines over Aboriginal rights, and for continually challenging the government’s Maori MPs for ‘not defending Maori rights’. A student at Waikato University complained about Harawira in April 2009 after an incident where Harawira swore in response to a question referring to Maori as a "minority group".
In November 2009, Hawawira was asked to repay some travel costs after skipping a taxpayer-funded conference in Brussels to go sightseeing in Paris. "How many times in my lifetime am I going to get to Europe? So I thought, 'F*** it, I'm off. I'm off to Paris'," he said. In a subsequent email exchange with a member of the New Zealand public who had criticised Mr Harawira's actions Mr Harawira lashed out at white people, stating "White motherf***ers have been raping our lands and ripping us off for centuries and all of a sudden you want me to play along with their puritanical bullshit....And, quite frankly, I don't give a shit what you or anyone else thinks about it. OK?". Harawira's letter was heavily criticised by the media and other members of Parliament.

The Maori party defended Harawira's actions, and decided that he would not face any punishment however this decision needs to be ratified by a hui to be held in his Te Tai Tokerau electorate.

Soon after the MP made a public apology. He made a statement on Radio Waatea, apologising for the wording of his email but not for the message he was trying to get across. He then provoked further controversy by suggesting that the leader of the Labour party Phil Goff was a "bastard" and "should be lined up against a wall and shot" for passing the Foreshore and Seabed Act.

Daughter's Arrest

Hone Harawira's daughter, Anikaaro Harawira, and Anikaaro's boyfriend, Stuart Harrison, were charged with arson and aggravated robbery over an incident on January 19, 2007 in Kaitaia. Police allege they took the car of someone they knew and set fire to it. They were released on bail and appeared in Kaitaia District Court on February 28, 2007. The pair faced a maximum of 14 years' imprisonment if convicted. [1]

External links

• The official website of Hone Harawira
• Parliamentary website page