\u201cThe Mayor responded with a comment along the lines of \u2018security can\u2019t be very tight if we\u2019re being escorted by a Muslim terrorist\u2019,\u201d the RNZ spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Mayor also made a comment about the employee\u2019s looks and said something like \u2018gosh, look at your beard\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man noted he must have looked shocked because the Mayor then said he was only joking, the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
The staff member, whom RNZ News agreed not to name, said he was shocked and hurt by the comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cI agree with the Mayor that his comments were inappropriate and disrespectful,\u201d he said in a statement sent by RNZ\u2019s communications team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI acknowledge his apology and hope this incident leads to reflection about the choice of language, and the danger of racial and religious stereotyping, especially by those in positions of leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
RNZ\u2019s chief people officer Sarah Neilson said the comment was not acceptable.<\/p>\n
\u201cRNZ\u2019s immediate concern is for our colleague who was understandably hurt by the comments,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt our workplace we want people to be treated with respect, including by our guests. The comment made to our employee was unacceptable whether it was made in jest or otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Mayor\u2019s apology<\/p>\n
The Mayor has sent the man an email apology. <\/p>\n
It was requested he send it via an RNZ colleague and the organisation has released it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am writing to apologise for the comment I made to you yesterday. It was inappropriate, and I take full responsibility for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand that my words were disrespectful, and I regret the harm they caused. It was a fumbled attempt at humour which I admit I got wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn a personal note, I have a great deal of respect for the Sikh community in Auckland, and I am sorry that my comment fell short of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man is not Sikh. The Mayor was mistakenly told by his staff that the man was Sikh.<\/p>\n
In response to questions from RNZ today, Brown sent a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tend to use humour in all interactions but acknowledge I got this one wrong,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was made aware of this, I immediately sent an apology to [the man]. I have always made it clear that I have great respect and admiration for our Muslim, Sikh and Indian communities here in Auckland, and I will continue to be a Mayor who represents every Aucklander.\u201d<\/p>\n
– RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Mayor responded with a comment along the lines of \u2018security can\u2019t be very tight if we\u2019re being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13790,806,51,6256,10934,36990,111,43,139,69,42543,172534,45,42542,55629,8445,61,3542],"class_list":["post-394956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-a","tag-as","tag-auckland","tag-brown","tag-mayor","tag-muslim","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-quinn","tag-refers","tag-rnz","tag-rowan","tag-staffer","tag-terrorist","tag-to","tag-wayne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}