MP spoken to

Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker has been reprimanded by his party leader. On Thursday Walker sent out a press release saying 11,000 people from India, Pakistan and Korea could be heading into quarantine in Dunedin, Invercargill, and Queenstown. His comments have been widely criticised as being racist. He didn’t single out arrivals from other countries. National Leader Todd Muller says he’s talked to the MP. Dunedin’s mayor earlier condemned the comments. Aaron Hawkins said the local MP’s remarks were unhelpful. He said using dog whistle campaign tactics as a method of creating fear was unnecessary.