Minister of Justice Kiri Allan hits back at online critic

Minister of Justice Kiritapu Allan has delivered a withering takedown to a shearer who claimed that she was inflating her connection to the agricultural industry.

Allan responded to the man this week after he took issue with a post she made on Facebook earlier this month after visiting the Poverty Bay A&P Show.

“A Gisborne teacher asked us to help a solo mum and son find a house a while back. We sorted it and ya keep crackin’ on,” Allan wrote.

“Today she came up and gave me a massive hug at the Gisborne A+P show saying how life-changing it was for this young lad and his mum to be in a new Kainga Ora home.”

The East Coast MP ended her original post with the hashtag “#OurWhy”.

Minister of Justice Kiri Allan. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Over a week later, the post caught the attention of a local shearer, who accused Allan of not having “anything to do with shearing” and appearing to suggest she did not attend the event.

“Why you bull****ing Kiri?” he began. “You don’t even know these people in the photo, and you don’t even have anything to do with shearing, bro. Didn’t see you there either. Wake up.”

He ended his message with a middle finger emoji.

He was swiftly dealt to by Allan, who told him she was there - sitting with his crew - and ended her response with a tongue-in-cheek ‘apology’.

“I enjoyed the shearing, as I always do, sitting alongside a lot of your crew actually. For a couple of days… in fact, I was in that shed at 7.30am, having yarns with sheep + beef farmers for a couple hours before you guys rolled in,” Allan told her constituent.

“That aside, read the yarn bro. It’s about housing. And how at that shearing shed, no doubt while I was watching some of your crew, a teacher came and had a yarn about a kid who got a whare,” she added.

She then questioned his delayed response before sending him off with “sincere apologies”.

“Re: wake up… yeah brother, that’s the one - this post has been up for a week. Dunno whose pic you thought it was… coz I took it, I was there, and I was sitting in those sheds yarning with a tonne of folk. My sincere apologies if I didn’t make your acquaintance and it left a bruise.”

Allan's response was well received.

The response has received over a thousand positive reactions but it didn’t stop the young man from responding to double down, again saying Allan didn’t know the people she photographed, calling her a “sell out” and using obscene language.

Allan told him to chill - and offered her support.

“Kia tau homie, and well done in the comp,” she wrote.

“If you make it to the worlds, or the Nats, I’m sure I’ll have plenty of time to come and shake your hand - or at least give you the eye brow nod.”