Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce compared the Labour-Green pact to the Bachelor. Photo / File
It was supposed to be a debate on the Budget but National's Steven Joyce had something much more romantic on his mind - the Love Song of Labour and the Greens.
The day before, the two parties had announced they were officially conjoined. It was only for a limited time,
but it was by way of an official-sounding document known as a 'memorandum of understanding.'
Joyce did not understand it at all. He said the two parties had announced "the stop-the-press news" that they would campaign against National in 2017. "That is the news." He described the courtship: "They literally tweeted love hearts to each other." Then he likened it to the Bachelor, showing an alarming level of knowledge of the cast of the reality show. "That makes Winston Naz. I feel a bit for Naz. He's been left on the shelf."
At this point NZ First leader Winston Peters leaped to his feet. A frisson of excitement ran through Parliament. Was Naz about to fight for her man? But Peters was simply adding bathos to Joyce's story. His only objection was Joyce referring to him as Winston rather than by his title and surname as Parliament's rules dictated. He humbly suggested that should include a "sir."
Duly reprimanded Joyce continued, his syntax now rather encumbered by having to refer to "the Right Honourable Winston Peters" rather than simply 'Winston'. He ended his tale with Green MP Julie Ann Genter, the 'Erin' of this Bachelor episode who had been "thrown under a bus." "It is ironic really because she is in favour of public transport."
