Judith Collins says husband David Wong-Tung makes his own social media choices

National leader Judith Collins is philosophical about her husband receiving racist abuse after controversial social media posts.

Collins spoke to media after David Wong-Tung, shared memes on Facebook from a page called the National Party's Meme Working Group, including one comparing Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to Marvel character The Incredible Hulk.

He faced a barrage of social media criticism andwas attacked online himself with racist comments.

Asked about attacks on her husband online, Collins said: "These things happen".

She reiterated that she did not post the memes herself.

The meme, showing Ardern tinged green and labelled "The Incredible Sulk", is captioned:
"Don't make me angry. You won't like me when I'm angry."

The green school and growing crystals

Collins this morning said the level of anger from other schools over the Government's $11.7m infrastructure spend on New Plymouth's private Green Schoolwas clear during her visit to the city yesterday.

She said if there is no contract with the school, the funding should be reversed.

Asked about the school's curriculum, she said there is "possibly not a huge amount of support for growing crystals and planting them", referring to a "sacred ceremony" run by a school parent that included planting crystals with the school's students.

Collins said the government should release the business case, including any analysis from the Treasury, that led to the funding being approved.

She also said the Government was playing catch-up on testing border-facing workers, and ports should also be taken seriously given how contagious Covid-19 is.

Collins said she was in the South Island last week and people in Invercargill were "very grumpy" about still being in alert level 2.

Collins said she didn't have the same information the Government had, so she wasn't saying she wanted the South Island at alert level 1.

She said she was concerned about the lack of productivity and had not made any decisions about moving the minimum amount of statutory leave to 10 days.

She said care had to be taken about exploring deporting Brenton Tarrant to Australia because he had to spend the rest of his life behind bars without parole, and different states in Australia had different rules.

Posted by National Party's Meme Working Group on Saturday, 29 August 2020

Yesterday Collins said she wouldn't have shared what her husband had online.

"We've been together for 41 years. I've never been able to get him to do anything I tell him to do," she said.

"I've just said to him, 'Well it's not something I would do'. But he's an adult and he makes his own decisions."

Posted by David Wong-Tung on Sunday, 30 August 2020

But some social media users have taken a different stance, labelling Wong-Tung's actions misogynistic.

Neale Jones, a former senior adviser to the Labour Party, posted on Twitter that he could "scarcely believe" Wong-Tung was sharing the memes, and former National Party press secretary Ben Thomas said Wong-Tung should delete his account and apologise.

If this is real he should delete his account & apologise https://t.co/ASW2BLT3hP

— Ben Thomas (@BenThomasNZ) August 31, 2020

Yesterday the National Party launched its school infrastructure plan, promising to spend $4.8 billion extra on school buildings over the next 10 years.

It also signalled a looser approach to school zoning and would let schools grow to accommodate demand.

And it proposes an "alliance" with national infrastructure and construction firms to build new schools and upgrades more cheaply than under the current system of putting each project out to tender.

Collins spent yesterday announcing the policy at New Plymouth Boys' School, after a storm of outrage from Taranaki schools against the Green School grant.