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Helen Clark has weighed in on Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters’ remarks in Parliament today after he used the phrase “retard comment”.

Taking to X tonight, the former Prime Minister said: “[It is] distressing to see this kind of language/attitude in NZ Parliament.”

It was a sometimes unedifying Question Time during which NZ First leader Peters had to withdraw the use of the phrase “retard comment” and Te Pāti Māori interjected with the phrase “what blood quantum are you?” in response.

After Question Time, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi said both Peters and NZ First MP Shane Jones had accused Te Pāti Māori of talking about “blood quantum” in the past.

“What we were doing was throwing it back at the person who actually uses blood quantum-ing tactics in the House, which is Winston Peters,” he said.

“But in actual fact we never talk about percentage of blood quantum. But he uses it all the time. So to have NZ First accuse Te Pāti Māori, the only indigenous and tangata whenua party in this Parliament, of using blood quantum-ing is a bloody farce.”

Peters said his dismissal of a comment about “ongoing colonisation” by Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer as “a retard comment” was warranted because it had been a “a stupid racist comment”.

Asked if he knew what “retard” meant, he said it had many meanings.

“When you do it on a vehicle, you just slow the vehicle down. It’s got many meanings and you’ve got the wrong one here.”

Ngarewa-Packer said they had decided to start calling out Peters for using derogatory words.

“Every time we stand up to do something, he stands up and abuses. I think we’ve had the words ‘idiotic’ and then ‘disgusting’ - another word we have seen used to demonise and abuse people. So we had to take the Deputy Prime Minister to task. We’ve watched it go on for months and months.”

Ngarewa-Packer defended Te Pāti Māori’s own use of the word “racist” about the Government.

“We won’t stand back on the fact they are part of a coalition that is repealing every transformational policy and legislation that has been put in to address inequities.”

Darleen Tana returns to Parliament

The comments come the same day embattled MP Darleen Tana returned to Parliament for the first time since resigning from the Green Party.

Tana had been suspended from the Greens in March after allegations of migrant exploitation at her husband’s bike business.

She then resigned from the party after her conduct was reviewed by an independent lawyer and found to be wanting. The Green Party has called for her to resign from Parliament as well.

Fronting media on Tuesday, Tana said she would remain in Parliament “as long as this place allows me”.

Asked if she was involved in migrant exploitation, she said: “The report that came out was pretty clear, there was no migrant exploitation in that report, let alone that I was involved in it.

Independent MP Darleen Tana returned to Parliament today and says she will continue working as ‘as long as this place allows me’. Photo / Mark Mitchell

“What I can categorically say is we’ve spent so much money wasting taxpayers’ hard-earned money to find out that I am married to my husband for better or for worse.”

Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said they would wait to see what happened this week before considering whether to use the waka jumping legislation to eject Tana from Parliament.

If they did use the waka jumping law, Swarbrick said it would not be without the sign-off of the wider party.

“I’ve always said nothing is off the table here. But the best case scenario for everyone involved in this situation is for Darleen to take accountability and responsibility and to resign.

“But we are in a situation where we have to explore other options, then we will have those sensitive conversations at our AGM this coming weekend.”

Claire Trevett is the NZ Herald’s political editor, based at Parliament in Wellington. She started at the NZ Herald in 2003 and joined the Press Gallery team in 2007. She is a life member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery.