The ACT Party has hit out at Green MP Golriz Ghahraman again, this time accusing her of "playing the race card" in their dispute.
The bitter war of words began on Friday when ACT leader David Seymour called the MP, who came to New Zealand as a refugee, a "menace to freedom".
"I just think that Golriz Ghahraman is completely wrong," he told Magic Talk, accusing her of wanting to restrict free speech in the wake of the alleged white supremacist terror attack in Christchurch.
"I don't know if she understands what she is saying, but she is a real menace to freedom in this country."
The Government is considering widening the scope of New Zealand's speech laws, which currently prohibit incitement of racial disharmony, but not religious.
Ghahraman, who has been named as a target by white supremacists in online chats seen by Newshub, accused Seymour of "dog whistling to racists". National's Judith Collins came to Ghahraman's defence, calling for a "time out" and accusing Seymour of dehumanising the Green MP.
Ghahraman said she didn't think Seymour's comments quite reached the level of hate speech, but "knowingly talking about someone already targeted by extremist violence as a threat may be incitement".
On Saturday morning, ACT president Ruwan Premathilaka backed Seymour's attack on Ghahraman, daring her to report Seymour to the police.
"Incitement is a crime. If Ms Ghahraman believes an offence has been committed, she should report it. If not, she should drop her sanctimony."
Premathilaka also took a shot at Collins for playing into Ghahraman's "victimhood mentality".
"The National Party used to believe in individual freedom, but it has been missing in action in the free speech debate."
- Free speech debate reignites after Christchurch terror attack
- Enabling terror: Why dangerous words must be challenged
Last year Ghahraman revealed the torrents of abuse online from racist and misogynistic trolls she's had to put up with since becoming an MP.
"Twitter used to be such a nice, leftie, liberal political bubble," she told Newshub. "Now it's Trump-land. I get the misogyny, I get the 'you're young, too young', then I get the 'immigrants shouldn't even be allowed into politics'.
"Then I get the real race stuff, when it's like 'you're a terrorist, we need to load our shotguns'."
Ghahraman said she's considering reporting Seymour's comments to the Speaker.
Newshub.
