Election 2023: Act leader David Seymour slams reaction to joke about Ministry for Pacific Peoples
Act Party leader David Seymour believes some media organisations are being “deeply irresponsible” in their reporting of his joke about blowing up a government ministry.
It comes after Act deputy leader Brooke van Velden said Seymour’s joke is being “blown out of proportion” and some media commentary on it is “really dangerous”.
Seymour, talking to Newstalk ZB last week, referenced his commitment to dismantle the Ministry of Pacific Peoples if elected and then joked, “In my fantasy, we’d send a guy called Guy Fawkes in there and it’d be all over, but we’ll probably have to have a more formal approach than that”.
The allusion to historical figure Guy Fawkes, notorious for attempting to blow up Westminster Palace in London in 1605, prompted Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni to criticise the comments as unnecessary and accused Seymour of resorting to divisive tactics.
National leader Christopher Luxon said on Saturday he believed the joke was inappropriate and would have caused offence within the Pasifika community.
Seymour appeared on The Country radio show at midday today and said his comment was a joke about the ministry’s spending, following revelations the ministry had spent almost $40,000 on a farewell event for its former chief executive Leauanae Laulu Mac Leauanae.
“Everyone’s gone completely nuts and it’s just a good example of how there are certain elements of the media who can’t deal with serious issues, but will do their bananas over relatively unimportant issues,” he said.
He expressed particular concern regarding reports that asserted his comments were race-based.
“That last bit does actually really annoy me and some media, I think, need to ask themselves, ‘are they being responsible by completely misreporting the situation and adding race into it’, I would say deeply irresponsible.”
Van Velden appeared on TVNZ’s Breakfast today alongside Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and was asked by host Anna Burns-Francis to clarify what her party leader said.
Van Velden said the joke had been “completely blown out of proportion” and was part of a conversation about wasted Government spending.
She also challenged Burns-Francis’ interpretation that Seymour jokingly intended to blow up the ministry himself, saying that was “really dangerous” to claim.
Van Velden pointed to an incident last year when Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi joked about putting poisonous seeds in Seymour’s water, a comment the Act leader at the time said was questionable.
In response, Ngarewa-Packer believed Waititi’s joke was “completely different” and urged Seymour to apologise.
“He should apologise, he knows he should apologise.”
Asked if she thought the Act Party was racist, Ngarewa-Packer eventually said yes, prefacing her answer by claiming Act representatives had acted in a way that emboldened racist rhetoric, citing the party’s interpretation of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
She admitted she was somewhat worried about being on the campaign trail but, describing herself as an activist, stated her support of a person’s right to protest.
Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.