Henare apologises for cleaner comment

  • Breaking
  • 27/09/2013

National MP Tau Henare has apologised on Twitter for saying a Parliament cleaner should give her job to someone else if she didn't like it.

The comment yesterday followed a tearful plea from cleaner Mareta Sinoti who spoke in front of the Transport and Industrial Relations Select Committee.

Ms Sinoti cleans all 130 toilets in Bowen House each night and says cleaners do their best to clean the whole building given a number of cleaners had been cut.

Later in the day, Mr Henare told reporters: "If she doesn't want the job she should give it to someone else".

Last night Mr Henare took to Twitter and responded to some of the criticisms he'd received for the comment.

" […] I apologise to the lady and to all those that haven't really got a choice in jobs. Aroha Mai. My Bad."

He also says he used to be a cleaner at the Auckland public library. "It was 1000 times worse than Bowen house. I loved my job and never moaned."

The comment he made was "silly", he says.

Mr Henare posted on Facebook today that when he was asked if he felt sympathy for Ms Sinoti he did not know she had appeared before the committee. 

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source: newshub archive