Hone Harawira said Howard had generated anger. Photo / Northern Advocate

Hone Harawira said Howard had generated anger. Photo / Northern Advocate

Maori Party MP Hone Harawira has labelled Australian Prime Minister John Howard a "racist bastard" for his radical intervention aimed at stopping child abuse in Aboriginal communities.

Mr Harawira's comments screened on One News tonight.

"If I was an Aboriginal man in the Northern Territory I would feel like absolute s*** right now," Mr Harawira told AAP today.

"I would have the leader of my country saying I am an alcoholic, I am into pornography, I am into sexual abuse. All I would want to do is go out and smash someone."

Mr Howard last month announced radical measures to tackle problems including abuse against children and women, and poverty in remote Aboriginal communities.

They include bans on alcohol and pornography, quarantining welfare payments, abolishing a permit system that limits access to remote communities, and mobilising extra police and troops to help address abuse and other problems.

"All Howard has done is generate more anger and bitterness in the Aboriginal community, a lot of which is going to be internalised," Mr Harawira said.

"I said John Howard is a racist bastard trying to impose racist policies on a people who can't fight back," he said, adding that he stood by those comments to air tonight.

Mr Harawira likened Howard's plan to the US invasion of Iraq, and said it was ill thought out and was clearly aimed at helping him win the next election.

"The report that he is basing his recommendations on is already 10 years old. Why didn't he do something about it back then?" he said.

"He never sat down with the land councils. He never said to them 'there is a problem here but we recognise that the best people to sort it out are ourselves, and here are all the resources'," he said.

Mr Harawira is known for his blunt language and came to Parliament in 2005 with a background in radical protest over issues affecting Maori.

Maori Party Co-Leader Pita Sharples appeared to back his MP by issuing a press release with the title: "Hone or John: who to believe?

While the press release only indirectly addressed Mr Harawira's comments, Mr Sharples said they had to be seen in the context of the furore surrounding the release of the report on sexual abuse in Australia's Northern Territory.