Fire, but no smoke

Hone Harawira doesn't hate Pakeha New Zealand. Being pro-Maori doesn't make him racist or anti-Pakeha, he says. He doesn't care what redneck New Zealand thinks of him, but he has no animosity for them either.

The Te Tai Tokerau MP is a unique politician who is brutally honest and doesn't mince his words.

Nor does he dilute his method or message to make it more palatable. He embraces the radical firebrand label because, he says, that's what he is.

Though his opponents are quick to accuse him of playing it up for the cameras, they respect him for being principled and a tireless advocate for Maori.

Harawira admits he is arrogant, difficult to work with - which has led to tensions with the co-leaders of the party - and that he cares little of what people think of him.

The exception are the opinions of those in his own electorate, who say he is loyal, effective and hard-working.

His critics call him divisive and offensive, ill-disciplined and - as his inbox reminds him on a weekly basis - racist.

So how would Harawira feel if one of his seven children came home with a Pakeha partner?

"I wouldn't feel comfortable. Like all Pakehas would be happy with their daughters coming home with a Maori boy, and the answer is they wouldn't.

"That's just the reality of the world. Let's not cry about it. Let's just live with it and move on."

Some of his whanau have dated Pacific Islanders, and he didn't have an issue with it.

Does that make him prejudiced?

"Probably, but how many people don't have prejudices? I'm just like every other New Zealander, except I'm comfortable in recognising that that prejudice exists. I try not to let it fester into racism or a refusal to engage, or a deliberate attempt to deny."

Harawira was the reason that hundreds of complaints flooded the race relations commissioner last year, after he sent the infamous "white mother......." email to former Waitangi Tribunal director Buddy Mikaere, in an exchange after he left a parliamentary trip he was leading in Brussels to take his wife to Paris.

The incident damaged and embarrassed the Maori Party, drove a rift between Harawira and his co-leaders, and fuelled talkback radio for weeks until Harawira finally apologised - for the language he used, not for the sentiment, which was meant in the context of Pakeha theft of Maori lands.

It was a low point for Harawira, who accepts he was probably one of the most hated men in the country at the time.

"I regret having got myself into that situation. Hell yeah," Harawira says.

"It meant for the party, having to recover a lot of ground, and I don't know whether it has and I don't know whether it ever will. For me, I had to spend time in the dog box when I could have been doing other things.

"I think the party handled it unwisely. We couldn't have handled the situation much worse. We should have got together and collectively come to a point on how to handle it.

"I was close to going, but the support, particularly in the Tai Tokerau, was huge."

Some festering sores remain.