Employer of man who heckled Winston Peters criticised for launching probe into 'disruption'
By Kate Green of RNZ
The employer of a man who heckled Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has drawn criticism after apologising for the behaviour and saying it had launched an investigation.
Peters, the Minister for Rail and Transport Minister Chris Bishop yesterday announced the government would spend more than $600 million to upgrade New Zealand's rail network as part of this year's Budget.
At the end of the news conference at the Wellington Railway Station, a member of the public heckled Peters as he was answering questions about the potential punishment to be given to Te Pāti Māori MPs, set to be debated in Parliament later that day.
The man yelled: "What a load of bollocks", which prompted an exchange between the pair.
Peters told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking this morning he would not feel bad if the heckler lost his job, saying the man's behaviour was "disgraceful" and this had become far too prevalent in New Zealand.
In a statement last night the man's employer - engineering company Tonkin + Taylor - apologised, and said a code of conduct investigation was under way.
"At Tonkin + Taylor we take our responsibilities as a major New Zealand employer seriously. We do not condone behaviour that falls short of our Code of Conduct.
"We sincerely apologise to the event organisers, attendees, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Bishop for the disruption caused."
But the Free Speech Union said the incident had nothing to do with Tonkin + Taylor. Apologising off the bat set a "dangerous precedent" and a message that expressing political opinions in public was unacceptable.
"Individuals don't forfeit their right to express political views just because they have a job," spokesperson Nick Hanne said in a statement.
"Employers don't own employees' time when they are commuting to work, and the choice to heckle Winston Peters has nothing to do with Tonkin + Taylor."
Hanne said the Free Speech Union would be contacting the company "urging them to respect their employee's speech rights, and not to set a poor example to other Kiwi businesses".
"The heckler was wearing a Tonkin + Taylor lanyard at the time, but it's common practice for employers to ask employees to wear items like lanyards to help with workplace identification for reasons such as security.
"Companies can't have it both ways: requiring employees to be identifiable for branding or security purposes, but not when expressing lawful personal views on their own time."
Tonkin + Taylor declined to make further comment, as the matter was under investigation. Tonkin + Taylor's full statement
"We are aware of an incident at a media event at Wellington Railway Station this morning.
We have confirmed the person involved is a Tonkin + Taylor employee. We are investigating in line with our Code of Conduct and for privacy reasons we won't be commenting any further.
At Tonkin + Taylor we take our responsibilities as a major New Zealand employer seriously. We do not condone behaviour that falls short of our Code of Conduct.
We sincerely apologise to the event organisers, attendees, the Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister Bishop, for the disruption caused."
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