Stuart Nash resigns after ‘sexist’ text

The former-Labour minister resigns as NZ First candidate after calling new mother the ‘laziest MP’ he’d ever seen, writes Henry Oliver in today’s excerpt from The Bulletin.

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Former Labour minister Stuart Nash resigned as a New Zealand First candidate last night, as reported by Stuff’s Jenna Lynch (among others), less than a week after appearing at the party’s campaign launch in Manukau.

The latest saga in Nash’s turbulent political career began when former National MP Chris Finlayson revealed on his podcast Cross Party Lines that Nash had texted him in the middle of the night after Finlayson had spoken positively about National’s Napier MP Katie Nimon, who had taken time off from Parliament to have her first child in 2025. “Comments like yours motivate and drive me harder,” Nash wrote, “Katie took nine months off on full pay, went back for a week, then took another month off. Laziest MP I have ever come across. Nice woman, but ill-suited to the rigours of being an electorate MP.”

Nimon, who is the sitting MP for Napier and would have been Nash’s electorate opponent, said Nash’s account was actually plain wrong on the facts: she had taken six months away from Wellington but was “away from work for about 10 weeks,” working as a local MP in her electorate in various capacities with her baby in tow. The Herald’s Thomas Coughlan noted her son Lochie was born on Budget Day – 22 May 2025 – and she returned to Parliament on 8 December.

Cross-party condemnation

The reaction was swift and bipartisan. Christopher Luxon called the comments “sexist” and said Nash was “channelling the manosphere,” while Nicola Willis said she was “outraged,” citing Nash’s previous crude definition of a woman on The Platform last year (more on that in a bit). On Facebook, Chris Bishop called Nash “a sexist dickhead”.

“Stuart Nash’s comments were sexist and wrong,” Labour leader Chris Hipkins, who fired Nash from Cabinet in 2023 after he shared confidential information, said in a statement this morning. “He has once again highlighted why I was right to remove him from Cabinet. He does not have the judgment or temperament to be a Minister. It is an indictment on both Winston Peters and Christopher Luxon that up until yesterday they thought he did.”

Nash’s initial response – a statement that did not apologise but attacked National for voting against paid parental leave twice – made things worse. The Spinoff’s Alex Casey noted that three men named Chris had weighed in before Nash offered even an acknowledgement of wrongdoing toward Nimon.

Nash’s Odyssean journey to resignation

Nash’s departure was the latest in a long series of self-inflicted crises. On The Spinoff, Alex Casey catalogued the backstory: in September 2025, Nash appeared on The Platform and, when asked to define a woman, answered “a person with a pussy and a pair of tits” (an episode Alex Casey also covered extensively). The comment was so undeniably bad that he called back to ask for it to be removed, was refused, and later issued a lengthy LinkedIn apology after a terse conversation with his wife Sarah. Peters at the time said “the words used weren’t acceptable, and on that point we agree with Mrs Nash.”

Nash had previously been fired from Cabinet by Hipkins for sharing confidential Cabinet discussions with donors. Last night on Facebook, Nash posted a statement saying the backlash had become “a significant distraction” and that he did not want it to cost NZ First or the people of Napier. “As a husband and a father of four (including two strong, independent daughters) I have real respect for any working parent, and I regret that my words were open to an interpretation I never intended,” he wrote.

Winston Peters, who was overseas, posted a brief acceptance: “Stuart Nash has offered his resignation as a candidate and we have accepted.”