A spat between MPs saw National's Judith Collins say she was "utterly sick of being demonised for my ethnicity", during a select committee today when a question was asked to a presenter about the inclusion of Treaty of Waitangi partnership.
Leanne Arker from the Office of the Auditor-General was presenting on a report on functional leadership around government procurement.
Labour's Tamati Coffey was asking the last question to Ms Arker.
"Having another look through the document there doesn’t seem to be any kind of recognition of any kind of Treaty partnership in Government procurement."
Judith Collins can be heard in the background saying, "Oh, Jesus Christ".
"Stupid questions."
Labour's Deborah Russell then says, "that’s a white girl comment". ACT's David Seymour described Ms Russell's comment as "racist".
Ms Collins replies saying, "No, no it’s actually someone who is utterly sick of being demonised for my ethnicity, thank you very much".
It comes after Mr Goldsmith was wrongly identified as being part of Ngāti Porou by Nikki Kaye.
"I wasn't even talking about you," Mr Coffey said. "I apologise for that Leanne."
"Don't apologise for me, how patronising," Ms Collins said. "I can apologise for myself and I have no intention of."
Yesterday, National's new line up drew criticism after it did not include any Māori MPs in its top 12, with Paula Bennett sitting at 13.
In the House Labour's Peeni Henare criticised Ms Collins' comments.
Nikki Kaye said fellow National MP Paul Goldsmith is Māori, when in fact he’s not.
"When Ms Collins is more likely to live in poverty, to end up in prison, to be stopped to have her bags checked in a shop even though your Pakeha mates are not, then, maybe she can claim to be demonised for her culture," he said.
"But not now. She, like her leader are blind to the real Aotearoa the rest of us live in."
National's new leadership team yesterday incorrectly described their finance spokesperson Paul Goldsmith as Māori.
"The Goldsmith family have connections with Ngāti Porou. My great-great grandfather had European wives and Māori wives, so I’ve got lots of relatives across Ngāti Porou. I don’t claim to be Māori myself," he said.
"The caucus is diverse," new National leader Todd Muller said after revealing the party's revised rankings yesterday .
‘Paul? OK, right,’ was Paula Bennett’s response.
"We have 55 people coming from huge amount of different experiences, obviously gender, ethnicity, work experience, and I have spread the portfolios and work load right across.
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