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Speaker 1: So Shannon Helbert from the Maori Party doesn't like the

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Speaker 1: fact that Rahwerdi whites it. He answered all his media

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Speaker 1: questions about Taku to Feris and Threll. Now, if you

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Speaker 1: haven't caught up on this, this is what happened yesterday

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Speaker 1: when the Maori Party came face to face with the

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Speaker 1: press gallery. It was the first time since Tarku to

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Speaker 1: Feris has doubled down and then tripled down for his

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Speaker 1: anti immigrant comments and then ignored his leader's orders to

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Speaker 1: delete the video. And then the leaders started, by the

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Speaker 1: looks of things, ignoring media requests for interviews. So yesterday,

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Speaker 1: when the media finally had a chance to ask Rawori

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Speaker 1: about it for the first time, he refused to speak

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Speaker 1: English and he would only answer in Maori because he

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Speaker 1: said it's Terrell Mari week. And Shannon Helbert from the

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Speaker 1: Labour Party didn't like it because he thinks that Rahwori

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Speaker 1: is creating a quote exclusive bunch of Maori, which is

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Speaker 1: presumably mari who can speak Maori, and that by the

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Speaker 1: looks of things, excludes him. Well, tough bickies. If Shannon

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Speaker 1: doesn't want to feel left out, he should go and

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Speaker 1: learn Marii like everyone else who's spending their Wednesday nights

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Speaker 1: in Maori language classes. Look just for the record, before

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Speaker 1: you think I'm now on Rahuri side, I'm not. I

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Speaker 1: don't like that Rahwui's doing this because he's obviously weaponizing

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Speaker 1: the language and hiding behind it to avoid answering tough questions,

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Speaker 1: and then is pretending that he's doing it for some

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Speaker 1: noble reason of celebrating Mary Language Week. That's not what

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Speaker 1: he's doing. But set aside his childishness, he is entitled

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Speaker 1: to speak Marii exclusively if he wants to. It is

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Speaker 1: a national language. The man is fluent in it. If

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Speaker 1: this was a multi lingual European nation instead of predominantly

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Speaker 1: monolingual New Zealand, this would not be a problem. I

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Speaker 1: mean to be fair, Ahoudi probably wouldn't be able to

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Speaker 1: do what he's doing because the press gallery would also

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Speaker 1: be multi lingual and would be able to understand what

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Speaker 1: he's saying.

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Speaker 2: But Shannon's complaint is a uniquely New Zealand complaint, isn't it,

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Speaker 2: which is don't speak the language because I can't understand it. Again,

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Speaker 2: tough Bickies. Is really weird for me to hear this

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Speaker 2: from a Labour Party MP, by the way, and I

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Speaker 2: would encourage Shannon to take up some Mardi language classes

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Speaker 2: with his free time, which there is a lot of.

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Speaker 2: When I'm talking about his free time, there is a

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Speaker 2: lot of because he's not doing a lot in opposition

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Speaker 2: and maybe if there is a silver lining in that

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Speaker 2: already being this juvenile, it is a gentle reminders to

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Speaker 2: the rest of us that if we also don't want

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Speaker 2: to feel like Shannon left out.

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Speaker 3: There are classes for more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive.

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Speaker 3: Listen live to news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,

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Speaker 3: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.