A 50-year-old labourer charged with murder in Whanganui can now be named as the older brother of Labour list MP Kiri Allan.
MP Kiri Allan said today it was an incredibly trying time for her family. Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas
Eric Ara Mete had his interim name suppression lifted at the High Court in Whanganui this morning.
He has been accused of murdering his partner and leaving her body in an apartment for days.
Mr Mete was charged with murder a month ago after police found the body of 41-year-old Lorna-Anne Thompson in an apartment on the corner of Victoria Avenue and Ingestre Street.
Police believe she was murdered at least four days before she was found.
Ms Allan went public today and spoke to media about her brother and the devastation of her whānau.
"It's been an incredibly trying time...our thoughts and all of our aroha have been with the victim and her whānau."
As whānau members, they took the consequences upon their shoulders, said Ms Allan.
"For us there's inherent whakamā [shame]... and so it's been a challenging time."
Her whānau came from a "small area where all of the families are inter-connected", she said, and have been for many generations.
She was "particularly mindful" of the young people involved and of the way the two whānau - her's in particular - managed the harm.
Being an MP added an "extra element" and she had been concerned about the impact her personal role would have.
"One of the things I've been very mindful to do in any of my engagements with my family and any other person connected, to be very clear about my two different roles that I carry...I'm an aunty, I'm a sister, I'm a daughter and that's been really important to me over the last couple of weeks to put that role at the forefront of my mind.
"That said I know that being a parliamentarian attracts additional attention."
She also said often these tragedies happened "behind closed doors and in the darkness".
That included the devastating impact of methamphetamine use, including within her own whānau and community, as highlighted in a recent report.
"The East Coast is the second highest youth rates in the country...I often talk about it as being in the shadows...and so for me the things that happen in my own whānau bring home the realities of what's happening for many whānau.
"And if anything this is a relatively public exposure of things that many families, in particular my own community, encounter."
She said it reaffirmed to her how as an MP she "had come to this place" and how she wanted to be part of creating solutions for whānau like her own.
She comes from a very big family, the ninth of 10 children.
"We have different familial relations, parental arrangements, and to have been brought up in different environments, with about 70 first cousins on one side."
Mete was her older brother, but they were not brought up together.
"We were brought up in separate communities and towns...but his children were still my nephews and nieces and at the end of the day we are whānau."
Mr Mete was wearing jeans, a black denim jacket and black t-shirt when he appeared today. The public gallery was almost full with whānau and supporters from both the victim and accused.
He was remanded in custody until July, where he will be expected to enter a plea.