Trade Minister Todd McClay - "this is the least important thing I have to deal with”.
Photo / Marty Melville
Trade Minister Todd McClay - "this is the least important thing I have to deal with”.
Photo / Marty Melville
Trade Minister Todd McClay is refusing to answer questions about allegations a deal was made to not tell the media the truth about why former minister Stuart Nash was dumped from a United States trade trip.
McClay cut Nash from the trip over comments the former Labour minister madeabout women.
In a September interview with radio show The Platform, Nash stated a woman is a “person with a p***y and a pair of t**s”. Nash apologised for the comments.
Texts from Nash to McClay, obtained by NewstalkZB under the Official Information Act, include: “So have you really thrown me off this delegation because of something I said on Tuesday but have completely owned and accepted responsibility and apologised fulsomely for??? WTF”.
It was followed by a second text from Nash: “I’ve pulled out”.
Nash claimed a “deal” had been reached with NZ Trade and Enterprise chief executive Peter Chrisp, now interim chief executive of Invest NZ, in which Nash would withdraw from the trip and “the story would not be that I was asked to withdraw”.
Former Police Minister Stuart Nash during his valedictory speech in Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell
McClay refused to directly answer several questions from reporters at Parliament this afternoon on the allegations of a “deal”.
“You should take that up with him, it wasn’t communication between us, I never responded to him.”
McClay said the concerned entity for this particular trip was Invest NZ rather than NZ Trade and Enterprise.
The communications were released to Newstalk ZB under the Official Information Act.
McClay did say: “I grew up in Taupō playing rugby, people say all sorts of things. I’m not going to be precious about it ... I’m dealing with councils who are putting costs up for consents on farmers, we have got a film industry that could face 100% tariffs from the US and we’re negotiating a trade deal with India – 1.5 billion people – this is the least important thing I have to deal with”.
“Ultimately, he may swear, that’s his business ... there are many other things that are more important to the Government than talking about Stuart Nash’s text messages.”
Nash suggested the Trade Minister was being "amateur" while swearing at him.
McClay walked away from reporters as they continued to question him about the alleged “deal”.
The controversial remark from Nash to The Platform about women came after he spoke at NZ First’s convention in Palmerston North, where leader Winston Peters suggested he could be a “seamless” addition to the party.
NZ First leader Winston Peters and former Labour minister Stuart Nash sitting at the same table at the party’s annual conference in Palmerston North. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Peters told reporters he had not seen the story so could not comment.
“I’m sorry sunshine, you should have sent it to me earlier. If you send me a copy now ... I’ll go and study it carefully.”
One reporter produced large printed images of the texts while another told Peters they had texted the story to him about an hour ago.
Nash was sacked from Cabinet and stripped of all portfolios after disclosing confidential information from a Cabinet meeting to two businessmen, both former donors.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said Peters and McClay needed to be “very upfront” about any deal that had been made.
When asked about how he felt about Nash potentially re-joining Parliament given his interest in NZ First, Hipkins said: “He seems a long way away from [being in Government] at the moment”.
Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.
