Labour leader Chris Hipkins has called a party training exercise “ridiculous”, after a senior MP was recorded at it calling Finance Minister Nicola Willis a “duck-faced horse”.
Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds made the comment, with audio then leaked to media. Hipkins says she has since apologised to Willis.
“I didn’t need to speak to her about it,” he said at Parliament on Monday. “I think she made a mistake.”
In the training exercise, conducted as part of a Q+A session in a Labour Party list ranking event, MPs and candidates were asked by a party member whether they’d rather fight a hundred duck-sized horses or a horse-sized duck.
Edmonds, recorded in the audio leaked to media, talked about her Chinese heritage and said “we love duck”. She then referred to Willis as a “duck-faced horse”.
