Hone Harawira. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Another offensive email from Hone Harawira has been revealed and this one, littered with expletives, caused a commotion in Te Puni Kokiri.
Upset about changes that had been made to a brochure he designed about Maori flags, the Maori Party MP let six TPK officials know of his displeasure in
no uncertain terms.
"I'm bloody disappointed that I put so much effort into it, only to find out that everything has been changed at the last minute and without my approval," he said in the July 10 email.
"I am particularly f....n' pissed off that some clown has decided to rebrand the `Maori' flag as the `Tino Rangatiratanga' flag."
Mr Harawira demanded that the brochure be stopped pending a conference call to sort things out.
"Otherwise I will publicly expose this as a sham on Monday morning...no shit folks, either this gets sorted out, and quickly, or I go apeshit on Monday."
The full text of the email is in hundreds of pages of documents released to NZPA under the Official Information Act covering the consultation process to decide which Maori flag to fly on Waitangi Day.
The email raised complaints among TPK staff and then came to the attention of Helen Leahy, a senior official in the Maori Party's parliamentary office.
She emailed party co-leader and Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples.
"The six TPK staff should not be expected to receive emails littered with swear words and ultimatums," she said, and attached a copy of Mr Harawira's email after she had altered the expletives so it would get through Parliament's filter.
There is no record of Dr Sharples having done anything about it, but Mr Harawira subsequently apologised to the officials during a conference call.
And, when the consultation process was over, he sent a message to everyone involved:
