Shane Jones, left, and Winston Peters.
Photo: RNZ
New Zealand First Ministers are refusing to back down from comments they made towards immigrant MPs in the House this week.
MPs were debating the Prime Minister’s statement on Tuesday when Shane Jones yelled “send the Mexicans home” across the floor.
Winston Peters then told Green MPs Lawrence Xu-Nan and Francisco Hernandez to “show some gratitude” for being in New Zealand.
The Green Party has now written to the Prime Minister and the Speaker of the House asking they take action, saying the comments are “outwardly racist and xenophobic”.
“[The Prime Minister] needs to show leadership and be really clear that this sort of behaviour is unacceptable because it emboldens people outside of these four walls who wish to cause harm on our migrant communities and wish to delegitimise migrant communities’ participation in our democracy,” Mexico-born Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March said.
Neither Minister is backing down.
In a text to RNZ, Jones called the Greens “flakes” and said the party’s MPs liked to dish it out but couldn’t handle the return fire.
Asked if his comments had an anti-immigrant sentiment, Peters said that was a “stupid conclusion”.
“I was talking about two people jeering and shouting from the back benches as though the debate was of no moment to them and I was pointing out in the historical parliamentary debating fashion if you can’t take it go somewhere else. Or are you too soft for that?”
The Prime Minister’s office has not responded to RNZ’s request for comment.
Trade Minister Todd McClay apologised to the House in July last year after yelling “you’re not in Mexico now!” at Menéndez March.
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