Jacinda Ardern says stripping Sir Bob Jones of his knighthood is "certainly not" something she's considering in response to his highly controversial "Maori Gratitude Day" column last week.
The Prime Minister said on TVNZ1's Breakfast this morning, despite her not agreeing with all the opinions of honour recipients, a "high bar" should be set when it comes to their forfeiture.
"Often criminality is the usual test, so it's certainly not something I'm considering," Ms Ardern said.
"It doesn't mean I agree with everything that everyone who holds an honour in New Zealand says but we should have a pretty high bar."
Sir Bob's column, which was removed by the NBR, was said by Sir Bob to be a "piss take".
"While on the subject of Maoridom, rather than make kids learn the language, here's a much better idea. We should introduce a new public holiday, Maori Gratitude Day, in place of a much disdained Waitangi Day," Sir Bob wrote in the column.
An online petition was subsequently established by Renae Maihi to have Mr Jones stripped of his knighthood has since gathered over 47,000 signatures.
"People like Bob Jones forget that the honours and platform they possess are not a birthright," Ms Maihi said.
"A knighthood is meant to be an honour. However Jones' comments belittle, denigrate and dishonour over 15 per cent of that society, and the first peoples of this country."
Mr Jones argued in his piece last Friday that "as there are no full-blooded Maoris in existence it indisputably follows that had it not been for migrants, mainly Brits, not a single Maori alive today … would have existed."
Mr Jones told 1 NEWS his column was "a pisstake".
He said he plans to sue her over the definition of hate speech.
He told 1 NEWS he "didn't care" about the petition, which he earlier described as "infantile".
Ms Maihi said she was deeply upset by the NBR column.
"After reading Jones' comments I was up all night and I couldn't sleep," she said.
"It hurts on a visceral level to have such offensive comments made about your people, and this is a feeling that I know many others share."
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