It is deeply disturbing to see the vitriol directed at the tangihanga of a senior Hawkes Bay Mongrel Mob member, through two online posts by National Party MP Simeon Brown, media attention and subsequent death threats.

However posts by MP Simeon Brown and media commentary are deliberately inciting division along racial lines by ignoring that tangihanga is part of enduring Māori ceremony.

Aotearoa is facing social upheaval and division, this is beyond the game of politics, division will never work as a way of winning power or profile, it is not what we see as the role of an Opposition MP.
 
The posts and screenshotting of posts is culturally offensive and disrespectful to whānau and should never be tolerated by any culture or person regardless of who they are. Whether these posts fall outside the protection of parliamentary privilege, due to be being online is another matter.

We ask that Simeon Brown MP, apologise to the affected whānau, that he be censured by the National Party, he be censured by the Speaker of the House, that his Facebook and Twitter posts are removed pertaining to the tangihanga and his social media accounts be suspended until completion of a cultural sensitivity counselling course or when the the Speaker of the House sees fit, and that he be stripped of his National Party portfolios of Police, Corrections, SFO and Youth.