The
ACT Party is accusing Labour of “manufactured outrage” after
it complained about new
candidate Paul Henry’s participation in a risqué radio
game.
“People want politicians who are real,” ACT
leader David Seymour said. “Not ones that pretend to be
outraged.”
In an interview on Radio Hauraki on
Thursday morning, Henry was asked which of three party
leaders he would “shoot, shag or marry” between National’s
Christopher Luxon, Labour’s Chris Hipkins, and New Zealand
First’s Winston Peters.
“You’ve got to shoot Hipkins,
haven’t you?” Henry responded. “You’ve got to shoot Hipkins.
You’ve given me three choices, to be fair.”
He went on
to say the next choice was tricky. “It’s got to be Winston.
I’m shagging Winston.”
It prompted quick condemnation
from Labour, with Hipkins comparing Henry’s conduct to a
“circus audition”.
“With political leaders around the
world actually being shot and killed, Paul Henry should know
better,” Hipkins said.
In a separate radio appearance
on Newstalk ZB, Labour MP Ayesha Verrall described the
comments as “absolutely disgusting”.
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“We can’t just
let death threats go in our political conversation,” she
said. “There are nutters out there who feed off these sort
of things.”
But Henry told the Herald he was
“dumbfounded” by Labour’s response to what was “plainly
humour”.
“I’m sure they have much better things to do
than become faux outraged about something like this,” he
said.
ACT
leader David Seymour said Labour knew full well that the
“shoot, shag, marry” game was a common joke.
“Paul is
100 percent authentic,” he said. “I suspect that’s what’s
getting to Labour.”
Similarly, ACT deputy Nicole McKee
told reporters people needed to look at Henry’s comments in
context.
“If we’re going to look seriously to that,
well, we need to look seriously as to whether or not he
would shag Winston Peters or marry Christopher Luxon as
well.”
Labour deputy Carmel Sepuloni, however, said
Henry’s comments were “highly inapppropriate”.
“You
have to wonder whether or not he’s auditioning to become a
member of Parliament or for some new TV
series.”
Speaking in Fielding, Prime Minister
Christopher Luxon was less interested, saying he doubted New
Zealanders would take “tremendous offence”.
“That
sounds like an issue, frankly, for Chris Hipkins, as the
leader of Labour, and the leader of ACT, David Seymour, to
talk through. It’s got nothing to do with me.”
Police
Minister Mark Mitchell also declined to comment at length,
but agreed Henry’s response was a bit
distasteful.
“He’s new to politics now, and even
entering into a game that involved having to make decisions
like that and commenting on people, probably is not good
judgment.”
Australia’s prime minister Anthony Albanese
similarly faced criticism earlier this month after taking
part in a variant of the game on a podcast – “shag, marry,
date”.
He later apologised for having said he would shag
singer Kylie
Minogue.
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