National Party MP Judith Collins has condemned a woman who racially abused a police officer working at Ihumātao.
Video posted online on Monday showed the woman abusing several police officers, telling one who appears to be of South Asian descent to return home to his own country.
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Collins and Labour MP Willie Jackson were on The AM Show for their weekly panel segment when the subject came up.
"Nasty, nasty woman," Collins said.
"No-one should have to undergo that sort of... condemnation and that sort of thing. They're just doing their job," Jackson added.
Jackson said it's clear that sort of behaviour was unacceptable, but he's hopeful things will calm down soon.
"I think we were all shocked with what we saw and I know that [Deputy Police Commissioner] Wally Haumaha's doing some great work out there and bringing some peace out there," he said.
Collins said she couldn't imagine many people would be able to get away with using that kind of language.
"What a disgrace, disgrace in this country. If that was a white protester saying it, oh imagine it. I want to see the race relations conciliator [involved]."
New Zealand's next Race Relations Commissioner, former Mayor of Gisborne Meng Foon, will take up the role on August 26.
Hundreds of people are currently occupying land in Ihumātao, fighting a planned 480-house subdivision that will be built on land believed to be sacred.
Tensions at the protest skyrocketed on Monday when extra police officers were deployed to the site, which a police spokesperson said was due to suggestions protesters were planning on trespassing.
Things are said to have boiled over into a scuffle and protest leader Pania Newton says she was pushed over, although police reject those claims.
Newshub.
