Hone Harawira plans to ask fellow MPs to help pay his $500 fine after he was found guilty of not complying with a police instruction at an Auckland housing protest.
The Mana Party leader was arrested last October when he joined protesters fighting the removal of state houses in Glen Innes.
He locked himself in his car and turned his music up loud, blocking a Housing New Zealand-contracted truck and trailer unit from leaving with one of the homes.
Police told him several times to move but he refused and they eventually smashed a window and arrested him.
Harawira denied the charge but, after a three day hearing in Auckland District Court, was found guilty yesterday, fined $500 and ordered to pay $132 court costs.
We have no issue with Harawira exercising his right to protest. But he wilfully broke the law, and he has to accept the consequences of that.
However his plan to lobby his fellow MP's to pay his fine for him is simply daft. As an MP, Hone Harawira is amongst New Zealand highest paid people; certainly within the top few percent. His political party may champion the rights of the poor, but Harawira is anything but.
There's an old saying amongst criminals; if you can't do the time, don't do the crime. Hone Harawira rolled the dice with the police in Glen Innes last October and lost. He should just pay his fine, and get back to work.
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