Labour leader Chris Hipkins.
Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Labour leader Chris Hipkins says an exercise that saw Finance Minister Nicola Willis called a “duck-faced horse” by a member of his caucus was “ridiculous”.
The comment was made by finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds during a question and answer session at a Labour Party candidate list conference at the weekend, and was designed to test MPs about difficult questions that may be put to them, or questions that didn’t make sense.
During the exercise, a random question was used that might be put to an MP, and the task for candidates was to respond in a way that may allow them to present Labour’s political messaging instead.
The question posed in the exercise was “would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck?”
Sitting MP Kieran McAnulty can be heard responding by saying: “I don’t know how many duck-shaped horses, or whatever the hell the question was”, before carrying on to make a point he wanted to make – that may have nothing to do with the question.
Another candidate is heard saying “100 duck-shaped horses, one horse shaped – has duck” as another voice chips in correcting him that it was “size”.
Labour’s Barbara Edmonds and Finance Minister Nicola Willis.
Photo: RNZ
When it was her turn to respond, Edmonds said “every week I have to stand up in the house and ask a duck-faced horse – did I get that right [laughs] – questions every single week.”
Edmonds apologised to Willis after the recording was made public, telling RNZ she “got it wrong”.
She said there was no one else at fault and “I take accountability for it”.
“I absolutely feel terrible about it, and I do apologise for any offence that it caused.
“Especially to the Minister of Finance. That was not my intention, and I apologise for it.”
Hipkins told Morning Report a member of the party had asked a “silly question” and members gave “silly answers”.
He said they got carried away and despite it not intending to cause offense – it did and members went too far.
Hipkins said he understood if Willis was offended by Edmonds’ comments and she had apologised for that.
“I think that was the right thing to do,” Hipkins said.
“I think it was a ridiculous exercise, I think they got a bit carried away and my message to them has been pretty clear which is, you’ve got to assume that all of these things are public events and you do need to really make sure you’re focused on, you know, talking about the issues that really matter and this is not one of them.”
Hipkins said there were “hundreds of people” in the room and he didn’t know who had leaked the audio.
When asked for a response on Monday, a spokesperson for Willis said she had no comment to make.
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