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Maori Party MP Hone Harawira has apologised for calling the judge who jailed a tagger a "dickhead" in Parliament.
Mr Harawira said he had meant to attack comments the judge made, rather than make a personal attack on him.
Mr Harawira had told Parliament he wasn't a fan of tagging but it was the reaction of the poor to alienation, boredom, anger, frustration and low self-esteem.
"Look at that dickhead of a judge who sent that kid to jail for tagging because the judge thought it was culturally offensive," he said.
Mr Harawira today said he was wrong, was admitting he was wrong, and saying he was sorry.
He had been upset when Judge Tony Adeane had said defacing public property was "culturally offensive".
That reminded him of when he had been upset by something culturally offensive, yet protesting about it had landed him in trouble with the law.
A spokesman for the MP told NZPA that Mr Harawira was referring to the actions in 1979 of a group called He Taua.
He Taua confronted and assaulted members of an engineering student group who had traditionally celebrated the Auckland University's capping week with obscene imitations of the haka.
"Nothing got done until we put an end to it ourselves," Mr Harawira said today.
"We nearly ended up in jail for actually doing something about it.
"I was really bummed out that society could turn a blind eye for so long to something that had been hurting a lot of people for a long, long time, and then applaud when some poor kid gets chucked in jail just for tagging.
"In hindsight, I should have been clearer about what I said, and directed my comments at the remarks rather than at the judge.
"So I apologise for my comments, and I do so unconditionally."
The Maori Party had not told him to be sorry, and he was "not particularly fussed" that he may have breached Parliament's rules.
"My apology is because what I said was wrong.
"If I get the chance, I'll pop up to Hawke's Bay and apologise in person, and hopefully have a chat to him about tagging, and what I might be able to do to help solve the problem."
- NZPA
