• Harawira calls Goff a 'bastard'
His decision to leave Brussels and instead take his wife to Paris for the day and his subsequent abusive defence of his actions today culminated in a partial apology.
Mr Harawira had said his decision was justified because "white motherf...rs" had been "raping" New Zealand for years and he was not beholden to white puritanical "bullshit".
Mr Harawira today said sorry for his "poor choice of words" and the offence they caused.
He should have instead referred to what European colonisers had done, the MP for Te Tai Tokerau said.
The comments were not an attack against all Pakeha, he said.
Mr Harawira's later comments have overshadowed the Paris trip, but he acknowledged today he had made some mistakes there as well.
"It probably could have been handled better. It was a spur of the moment thing. I could have planned to do it probably at the end of the tour and it's been suggested that that's what I should have done," Mr Harawira said.
"I got the opportunity to take the woman of my life to the city that she's always wanted to go to and that we were close enough to go to, so we went."
Mr Harawira had been unrepentant about his decision to go to Paris but said today he had done the wrong thing and he would pay back some expenses but would let the Speaker's office determine what they were.
Mr Harawira's abusive comments followed former Waitangi Tribunal director Buddy Mikaere writing to Mr Harawira asking who paid for his wife, Hilda's, trip.
Among other things Mr Harawira replied by saying: "White motherf...ers have been raping our lands and ripping us off for centuries and all of a sudden you want me to play along with their puritanical bullshit."
He had shown the email to his wife minutes after sending it and she said he shouldn't have sent it.
"What I should have done was asked her to look at it before I sent it."
When asked if his wife was angry she sent the email, Harawira said "we love one another. Love conquers all".
It had not been hard to apologise for the email.
"No. If my mum tells me I'm wrong, I'm wrong. If my wife tells me I'm wrong, I'm wrong. Apologising is quite easy."
He said the apology was sincere and the best he could give, though he accepted it would not satisfy all people.
"I'm not quite sure whether the rest of the country thinks I've done enough, but I know that my family think I've done as much as I possibly could."
