Claire Trevett: Apology as far as conscience allows

Hone Harawira makes a public apology at the University of Auckland's Waipapa Marae for the language he used in an email, but not the sentiment. Photo / Richard Robinson

It hardly amounted to the pouring of cool water on flames. Hone Harawira's apology did not go far enough to undo much of the damage he has wrought - nor far enough to take pressure off his party co-leaders from calls to take stronger action against him.

But it went as far as Mr Harawira could in all conscience go without being accused of insincerity.

He addressed the email to Buddy Mikaere, with its "white motherf******" and talk of puritanical white "bulls***", saying that two minutes after sending it he showed his wife Hilda. Hilda was not impressed.

He said if he could go back to that time, he would have shown her before sending it and it never would have been sent.

He apologised to his party, to Pakeha contacts in his electorate, and to women, because a friend had told him the term was offensive to women.

He said he had been "misunderstood". And as far as his apology went, Mr Harawira was undoubtedly genuine.

He's not good at faking things - and he proved it by refusing to directly include the National Party in his apology.

Despite acknowledging the harm he had done to the Maori Party's relationships with other parties, when asked specifically if he believed some bridge-building was also in order for Mr Key or National, he said only they could feel free to include themselves in the apology if they wanted to but he was not specifically apologising to them.

He did get some things right.

The first was that his comments had caused "considerable damage and unnecessary harm" to his party's relationships with other people and other parties.

His actions have damaged the party in the wider public eye, after a year of its MPs assiduously building trust in the wider electorate.

It has dented the widespread goodwill and trust among National Party supporters and the wider public - Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples had tentatively tested this apparent new age in race relations and, reassured, then made use of it to try for some real changes for their people.

The awareness of that goodwill also meant Prime Minister John Key was willing to take some risks to let them do so. Mr Harawira has squandered some of it by showing it is not necessarily reciprocated.

The second thing he got right was that serious bridge-building with his own caucus colleagues is needed. Yesterday all the media gathered to hear Mr Harawira's apology.

Those who went to a major policy launch being held later in the day by Pita Sharples went only to ask about Hone.

But the Maori Party's drawn out process for dealing with it is hardly perfect.

Process is process, but allowing the matter to fester over a week has only compounded the problem. The co-leaders have stayed largely silent - leaving a public uncertain of whether they agree with Mr Harawira or not.

Party president Whatarangi Winiata appears to think Mr Harawira's hotheadedness can be shaped into a powerful force that is less prone to implosion.

He has voiced concern that outbursts are a recurrent event for Mr Harawira and suggested a type of "Hone Charter" to guide his future behaviour.

Hone plans to do so - but appears uncertain of how polished he can become, saying while he thinks he could become more considered in his language, he hoped the party did not expect him to lose "my edge".