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\nIndian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and New Zealand’s Trade Minister Todd McClay sign the free-trade agreement. (File photo)
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The Trade Minister Todd McClay says Indian media questioned him about Shane Jones’ “butter chicken tsunami” comment when he was in the country signing the Free Trade Agreement<\/a>.<\/p>\n He said he told them the New Zealand First MP was entitled to say what he wanted – but it was not a widely held view.<\/p>\n In a video circulating online, Jones said his party would “never accept” the deal with India, saying it would lead to “unfettered immigration”.<\/p>\n “I am just never going to agree with a butter chicken tsunami coming to New Zealand,” Jones said.<\/p>\n McClay was in India this week and signed the agreement on Monday night.<\/p>\n Local media asked him about Jones’ comments, he said.<\/p>\n “I told them … it’s not a view that’s held by New Zealanders widely, that actually … people are, in freedom of speech, allowed to say what they want, and it’s not something that Indian New Zealanders should be worried about.<\/p>\n “Certainly, I’ve said very clearly to Indian New Zealanders, they’re valued in New Zealand, they make a big contribution, and this is a small minority view.”<\/p>\n Jones was “better than that”, McClay said.<\/p>\n Just over an hour later, during Parliament’s general debate, National’s deputy leader Nicola Willis said New Zealand First had used “race-based scaremongering” in its opposition to the FTA.<\/p>\n “Shame on you, Shane Jones, I enjoy working with you around the Cabinet table but that kind of race-based rhetoric has no place in New Zealand politics.”<\/p>\n It was the closest a senior National MP had come to calling Jones’ comments racist.<\/p>\n Last week, Willis said they were derogatory and offensive, and some New Zealanders would feel they were racist, but she did not use that word herself.<\/p>\n Prime Minister Christopher Luxon last week said Jones’ comments were “unacceptable”, but he did not call them racist<\/a> – nor did other senior MPs.<\/p>\n ACT leader David Seymour said they were “really lame dad jokes”.<\/p>\n Mount Roskill MP Carlos Cheung said the phrase was racist<\/a>, and he felt that more than other MPs because he is a migrant.<\/p>\n