Human rights lawyer and disabled person Dr Huhana Hickey (Ngāti Tāhinga, Whakatōhea) worries it risks ruining a necessary conversation about hate speech in New Zealand.
"Make your statements, keep them professional and do the job ... they're not doing that, they're 'just start the conversation, get into a bit of a bug hole' and then they end up in this big problem where they don't know how to explain it and so they disappear. And that's not a good sign for any politician of any party.
"People get that as meaning to say he's afraid, he's running away, or 'they don't want to engage, they just want to stop free speech' and that's when all the rumours start, all the toxic conversations start."