Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson speaking at Saturday's counter-protest against anti-transgender activist Posie Parker in Auckland. Photo: Instagram / Missgeenax
The Green Party's co-leader Marama Davidson is remaining steadfast in her refusal to apologise to white men following controversial comments she made at the weekend.
Political opponents have called for Davidson to resign after she told a member of far right group Counterspin that "white cis men" were the cause of violence in the world.
Davidson made the comment at a counter-rally opposing British anti-trans activist Posie Parker on Saturday when confronted by the group.
This comment blew up on social media sparking calls from New Zealand First leader Winston Peters and the Act Party leader David Seymour to resign.
National leader Christopher Luxon has demanded Davidson publicly apologise and stop making excuses for her behaviour.
Davidson later clarified her comments, that violence happened in every community. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said he had accepted her clarification, particularly given she had been injured by a motorcycle before making the comment.
"I am not going to apologise to cis men" - Green Party co-leader, Marama Davidson
Davidson told First Up she would not apologise for the substantive points she was making, but said the motorbike incident had coloured the language she used.
"I was hurt by the motorcycle when I first turned up to the protest, but didn't want to give up my commitment to speak at the rally, so went and did that. Then, on the way back to the car, was like massively ambushed," she said.
"I have clarified that I don't normally use those words or that language, but I always talk about ending the patriarchy. I always talk about the structures of power, the drivers of violence, that we cannot end violence without recognising the structures of power.
"So, I don't move away from what I was trying to highlight in the fact that the biggest threat to women is definitely not trans people."
Davidson accused of making excuses
Luxon told Morning Report Davidson's remarks were intemperate and fell short of standards expected in public life, so an apology was necessary.
"It's a pretty basic behaviour that you would expect of leaders to make, and so it's not rocket science," he said.
"But coming up with a whole bunch of excuses for a whole bunch of poor behaviour, whether it's Stuart Nash or whether it's Marama Davidson, you've got to have some standards.
"Just call it out when you make a mistake, say so, apologise for it, move on. It's what we teach our kids and it's exactly what a minister should be doing...
"I just think that it was inappropriate to bring race into it. And all I'm saying is that would have caused offence to the public. And she should simply apologise for it as it's not a big ask...
"I don't understand what the hang-up is, just make the public apology to those in the public that you caused offence - you know your comments were wrong - and move on. Then continue to prosecute why we've got to do so much better on family violence, which is a major concern and issue."
Davidson said she wanted Luxon to put his energies into helping end violence.
"I'd like him to help in violence and to help all men take responsibility for when men are violent and to be accountable," she said.
"I'd like us to actually use this spotlight to talk about the solutions for prevention... to ending violence. I am not going to apologise to cis men."
Davidson is laying a complaint with police after being hit by the motorcycle at Saturday's rally.