Her fellow MP Stuart Nash then proved her point. He revealed he had found an expired RM Williams gift card while cleaning out his office for “quite a lot of money — quite a lot of money”.
He said he hoped his wife wasn’t watching because it had been a gift from her and he had not ‘fessed up.
We’ll keep it quiet, Stuart, don’t worry.
We also won’t tell your in-laws about the unused book card they gave you, or the people who gave you a garden centre card and a Mitre 10 card, and you don’t remember who they are.
Chris v Chris
Chris of the Week goes to Chris Luxon.
Despite faltering over his transport policy and his own personal rankings stagnating in the latest Newshub Reid Research poll, National had a four-point margin over Labour and would have been able to form a government with Act. Plus his deputy Nicola Willis made us laugh by inadvertently asking Grant Robertson “how big is his hole?”
Chris Hipkins and his caucus had a much stronger week and showed some of the old fight, puncturing National’s transport costings. However, the chickens of those earlier weeks had come home to roost - the same poll showed 62 per cent of people didn’t think the Government was focused on issues that mattered to them.
The trickiest question Chris Hipkins faced all week
Hipkins spent days trying not to slip up and give the game away on questions about whether taking GST off fruit and veg was Labour’s election policy, only to be rendered completely speechless by another question altogether: why is it so hard for New Zealanders to support Australian sports teams?
That came after an Australian reporter asked if NZ should switch to supporting the Australian Matildas in the Fifa World Cup after the Ferns failed to get through.
Hipkins sighed and ummed. Asked to say “go the Matildas” he managed to choke it out, but then promptly added a go for all the other teams too.
“Look I don’t know. There’s something in it about Kiwis just backing an Australian team. But I’m sure we wish our Aussie mates the best.”
Just not the very best: he seemed more comfortable with the suggestion he was one of those who supported New Zealand and then any team playing Australia. “That seems to have been a long-standing Kiwi mantra.”
For perhaps the first time, it was a relief to be able to move on to a question line about Let’s Get Wellington Moving.
Luxon was far more unequivocal about it: ” When it comes to sport, we back anyone other than Australia.”
The After-Hours Luxon
A while ago, National’s Shane Reti bemoaned that not all New Zealanders knew the “after-hours” Luxon that he knew. National is now apparently hellbent on showing us this after-hours Luxon on social media.
The latest centred on actual after-hours activities – what they got up to at 10pm or even 11pm. It was a video of Luxon playing cricket in the hallway of Parliament with Paul Goldsmith, using a plastic bat and rubber cricket ball.
Luxon described it as “living our best lives: I imagine I’m Richard Hadlee” and suggested that if the Black Caps need back-up, they could step in.
Chris Bishop was a bit more realistic: “We’d maybe make the 148th XI.”
All very illuminating, but it will probably give Parliament’s art team palpitations – the corridor is lined with artworks from the Parliamentary collection. Might be time to install some shock-proof covers.
