PM Chris Hipkins said he considered it the end of the matter after Marama Davidson issued a statement clarifying what she had said. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins believes the polarising debate in the wake of British anti-trans activist Posie Parker's visit to the country has not been helpful, nor was it helpful to bring ethnicity and race into the debate.
It follows comments from Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson, saying "white cis men" were the main perpetrators of violence in the world at the weekend.
Davidson walked back that statement after calls for her resignation from the ACT Party and New Zealand First saying she was in shock after being hit by a motorcycle and that she should have been clearer.
"The polarised nature of the debate that we've been having in the last few days isn't particularly helpful" - Chris Hipkins
Hipkins said it was not particularly helpful to bring ethnicity or race into the debate and by doing that Davidson was factually wrong.
"But in the case of saying that the perpetrators of sexual violence are predominantly men, that is absolutely correct, but I think the way she chose to express that was quite unfortunate."
Davidson did get "a little bit of leeway" as she had just been hit by a motorcycle in "an emotionally charged situation", Hipkins said.
Hipkins said Davidson's decision to clarify what she said was the right one and as far as he was concerned that was the end of the matter.
It was fair to ask people to reflect on the fact that the members of the trans community had often been victims of violence and sexual violence, he said.
"I think the trans community wanting to be respected, wanting to be recognised, I think those are appropriate things for politicians to be talking about."
Asked whether Posie Parker's New Zealand visit had created a moral panic, Hipkins said "there was a degree of exploiting fear in some of the public comments that had been made".
"I don't want to spend a lot of time getting into that and therefore amplify it. But you know we should reflect on the fact there is violence in the community, we should reflect on who does it and we should reflect on the fact that we don't want it to continue."
The government had done a great deal of work in the area of domestic and family violence which was one of the biggest areas of violence by far, he said.
"The polarised nature of the debate that we've been having in the last few days isn't particularly helpful - it's also not one of the major issues that people are raising."
As a democratic country, it was important to be able to have and express disagreements from time to time, he said.
There was a global trend for people to live in a more insular way and to only have friends who agreed with them, he said.
"Actually having friends you disagree with is one of the best things you could do for democracy because it means that you'll still be exposed to ideas and opinions that you might not completely agree with, that's healthy."
Hipkins said he would not like to see New Zealand get to a point where things were as polarised as they were in some other countries.