Kia Ora, but not for Green Okkers

Almost half a million Kiwis live in Australia where the weather and wages are better, but those who arrived since 2001 are denied many social benefits. This doesn't apply to Australians in NZ. The unfairness is a guaranteed staple for a slow news day, or a Kiwi politician hunting a headline.

A more nuanced operator than the earnest Dr Norman would have spent time learning to pronounce the dairy product 'melk', and being photographed barracking for the All Blacks.

Instead he made a Politics 101 howler: His attack on 'crony capitalism' was acceptable, but then he played the man, not the ball. OK in Canberra, but not in Aotearoa – unless the object is an Aussie.

Dr Norman tackled former finance trader Prime Minister John Key, an Auckland-born benign centre-righter famous for his friendliness, and compared him to gruff Sir Robert Muldoon who reigned between 1975 and 84.

Ms Turei could have hit out and ducked the backlash. She was only a schoolgirl when 'Piggy' Muldoon backed the 1981 Springbok tour that split the nation, but she was in Palmerston North hearing the murmur of the Manawatu, while her colleague was a kid sweating in Brisbane.

Sir Robert, who died in 1984, is still considered a 'divisive and corrosive' figure in NZ history – but at least he was Kiwi. The Dominion Post editorialised: '… to suggest Mr Key's personal style is akin to that of Sir Robert is to do nothing but betray ignorance.

'The two could not be more different. Sir Robert was a micro-manager; Mr Key delegates. Sir Robert snarled; Mr Key smiles. Sir Robert banned journalists from press conferences, insulted foreign leaders and once punched a demonstrator outside a meeting. Mr Key occasionally gets a little tetchy.'

The commentariat went into overdrive. After scarifying the Australian's past, right wing political analyst Matthew Hooton told Radio NZ National: 'there's something inauthentic and hollow about Russel Norman when he talks about NZ history … it's probably wise for new immigrants who get involved in politics to talk about the future than the past.'

The debate erodes NZ's reputation as a welcoming multicultural nation where 25 per cent were born overseas. The Green's co-leader has lived in NZ for 16 years. He's a citizen and married to a Kiwi, but to many (too many?) forever flawed because his Mum didn't go into labour in Godzone.

If Dr Norman had come from China, Korea, India, the US, the UK or the Pacific Islands like many MPs, it's unlikely he'd have been ridiculed for making the mistake of being born elsewhere. That would have been labelled racist.

There's a streak of sinophobia in NZ, as revealed in opposition to Chinese land purchases, but this is mild when compared to Okker-intolerance.

Dr Norman should have known all this from his PhD thesis on NZ's left wing Alliance Party, research that gave him an understanding of Kiwi history better than many of his mockers.

But here's another problem: He studied at Macquarie, not Massey. Unforgivable.