Harawira skips meeting to holiday in Paris

Maori MP Hone Harawira decided to take a holiday with his wife in Paris instead of attending a European parliamentary delegation meeting.

He may be asked to pay back some travel costs after leaving the Brussels meeting last month to see the sights in Paris, The New Zealand Herald reported today.

"How many times in my lifetime am I going to get to Europe? So I thought, 'F*** it, I'm off. I'm off to Paris'," he said.

Mr Harawira, whose wife Hilda accompanied him on the trip, paid for the extra travel himself.

He said issues to be discussed at the meeting had been covered at a dinner the night before.

European Parliament MP Mara Bizzotto -- who chaired the delegation for relations with Australia and New Zealand -- "was cool with it", he said.

The Office of the Clerk was considering the trip and a Parliamentary Service spokesman said it was possible he could be asked to repay a portion of his travel costs.

Mr Harawira accepted the trip to Paris was "outside the boundaries, but I don't feel uncomfortable with it".

The other two MPs in the delegation, National MP Katrina Shanks and Labour MP Rajen Prasad, attended the meeting which discussed relations between the EU and New Zealand, family and youth policies and multiculturalism.

In 2007 Mr Harawira was told to pay back some flights after he left mid-way through a four-day select committee trip to Melbourne, so he could visit Aboriginal groups in Alice Springs.