Defence Minister Peeni Henare says over the course of the Covid pandemic online abuse towards him has heightened, from racially charged slurs to abuse from people driven by conspiracies.
“I've been called a n*****. I have been called by our own people a kūpapa and a traitor,” he said.
Henare spent yesterday blocking trolls from his social media platforms. He's had enough.
“Mai i te wā i timata au ki roto i tēnei wāhi, kua kite ahau i ngā kōrero kaikiri. Inanahi rā i tiro atu au ki wake social media, kua peia kō atu i te kotahi mano tāngata mai i waku whārangi.”
“From the time I started in this job I've witnessed racist rhetoric. Yesterday I spent the day tidying my social media, I have blocked upwards of 1,000 people from my social platforms.”
This comes after Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta shared on Instagram a message she received calling her the 'n' word. She is fearful of the impact these comments have on whānau.
Scaring chldren
“He kino aua kōrero kia whakahāwea i te tangata mehemea, kaore au e whakapono ana ki tērā mahi. Mehemea ka whakaaro ake ki ā tātou nei tamariki, ka pā mai ēnei kōrero kino. Ka whakamataku, ka whakaue i te tangata.”
“Those comments are bad, they degrade people. I don't support it. If we think of our children, these types of comments impact them. They scare them, they upset them,” she said.
Meanwhile, National Leader Christopher Luxon has broken his silence on the anti-Māori sentiments used on Facebook against his use of te reo in his tribute to the late Joe Hawke. Initially he sidestepped questions on his thoughts on the racially charged comments - instead deflecting to the current government. But he later said he condemns “all forms of racism”.
“We've got some broader challenges around a government not laying up what it's talking about with respect to co-governance and I don't think it's helping because I think it’s causing some of this division,” he said.
But the MPs say, even though they get abused, they plan to continue using social media so they can keep people informed.
