Ricardo Menéndez March: Green MP says Prime Minister Luxon needs to hold Shane Jones, Winston Peters to account over recent comments

The Green Party has been quick to criticise their political rivals over recent objectionable comments in the House.

NZ First's Shane Jones yelled 'send the Mexicans home' during a debate - and has since refused to apologise - while Winston Peters has also copped some backlash for claiming foreign-born MPs were trying to impose foreign ideas upon Parliament.

Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March says Prime Minister Chris Luxon needs to hold these MPs to account and ensure similar incidents don't happen again.

"When politicians and people in positions of power make these comments, it emboldens those people outside of Parliament to hurl racist vitriol and abuse to migrant communities."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
New Zealand first MP Shane Jones has refused to apologize
for shouting send the Mexicans home during a debate in
the House yesterday. The Green MP Riccardom in India's March,
who was born in Mexico, has called the comments racist
and xenophobic. Winston Peters, for his part, well, he also
accused some foreign born MPs of trying to impose foreign

(00:20):
ideas on New Zealand, though he has since issued a
statement in which he said it was the heat of
the moment. Ricardom in India's marches with the Greens and
he's with me now, Hi Riccardo, the Prime Minister, has
said he wouldn't have made these comments himself. Winston says
it was in the heat of the moment sort of thing.
Do we just move on now?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well, like at the other are What is really clear
here is that the Prime Minister is scared of holding
Winston Peters and Change Jones for remarks, but if they
had been targeted at one of his MPs, he clearly
would have found them unacceptable.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
He did say he found them unacceptable.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Well, yeah, and it needs and he needs to make
it clear that it does not happen. This needs to
not happen again. As I've said before, this isn't about
Mike Links, you know, lawrences for Francisco, but rather actually
the fact that when politicians and people in position of
power make these comments and emboldens those people outside of
Parliament who throw a racist vitriol and abuse to migrant communities.

(01:19):
That is already happening and it is growing. So this
is why it's really important to not let those comments
go past without any accountability.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Do you think Parliament's lost a bit of decorum.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
I think this is more than the quorum in and
of itself. This is explicit anti migrant and cenophobic rhetorics.
Parliament can and should be a place of robust debate,
but that is quite different from debating ideas to remarks
that actually can cause harm beyond the full walls of Parliament.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Okay, some have said, look you were baiting him. In fact,
Francisco Hernandez in the record interrupts, deliberately interrupts Winston Peter's
multiple times when he was speaking, and then when Winston
hits back, he says, took the bait. And then when
he hits back again, he says keep rambling. So I
mean there's some egging ongoing here on here, isn't there?

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Interjections happen all the time, and we must make it
clear that interjection should be based on the contest of ideas.
I think for Winston Peters and Chin Johnes to then
make a remarks likes and the mix of home has
nothing to do with that, and more it has to
do with actually anti migrant sentiment that Nision first has
actually carried through the whole political history. Once again, I

(02:33):
think the Prime Minister has been extremely weak and time
and time again, whether it's on this issue or others,
has failed to hold one Sipeters to account fair enough?

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Do you also hold the same standard and hold the
same line in the sand for to party Maldi and
the way that they've treated Karen Shaw?

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Do you call that prime minister? We're not the Prime
minister here right.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Now, I know, but you're But you're you're the moral
arbiters the Greens, aren't you. You like to yourselves as
quite virtuous. So will you take the stand given you
taking a strong stance against the Prime Minister in New
Zealand first, here, will you take the same strong stance
against Tapati Maari to.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Patamari has already explained where those comments came from. Actually,
the co leaders of Tapatamari fronted on the same.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Do you think it's appropriate, it's exactable.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
The sentiments, I echo the sentiments off to Partumari. I
think it's actually not appropriate to conflate to completely different issues.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Hang on, hang on, hell yeah. But this is the thing.
This is where people get annoyed because I agree with you.
I don't think what Winston Peters said should have been said.
But I also don't think that you can peck on
a Maori minister and say that she doesn't understand what
it means to be maldi. You can you can walk
into your gum at the same time. Surely you can
see that both of these things aren't helpful.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
The difference that we have here is that the Partu
Maarti co leaders fronted up on the very same day
that happened, whereas lux And refused to answer calls from journalists.
He was penned down semantics. That's accountability and it is
actually her willing. A prime minister is willing up account.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
All right, So there's no nothing wrong with the party
Maori I mean, what about when they said that Mardi
with a superior race, genetically superior. Is that appropriate?

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Look, I think if you want to hold to Pasi
Marti to account for the words you should be talking to.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
But you're going to go in You're going to go
into a government with these guys after the next year, Right.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
I hear you, Ryan, But come on, this.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Is this is what frustrates But this is what frustrates people.
Either everything is on the table and unacceptable, or you
lose your moral high ground.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
This isn't about moral high ground. We've got to remember
that there are migrant communities outside of the four walls
of Parliament who are constantly facing threats about who they are.
We've seen a taxan pop transport and I think it's
actually really problematic to conflict debates that happen in the
House to issues that actually risk harming people on the
ground and in the communities. So I actually do think
we should like move with these issues carefully because there

(05:14):
is genuine harm out there in the communities that can
happen when people feel involvedned by the words of people
and positions of power.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
All right, Ricardo, I appreciate you coming on the program.
Thank you Ricardo in India's March from the Greens. For
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