Hipkins to PM: Nash had to go, but still you tolerate NZ First's sex jibes and racism

Thursday, 23 July 2026

Labour leader Chris Hipkins has used Stuart Nash’s resignation from New Zealand First to attack Christopher Luxon’s leadership, accusing the Prime Minister of applying double standards to ministerial conduct.

Just hours after Winston Peters accepted Nash’s resignation as a New Zealand First candidate, Hipkins said the episode exposed a failure of judgment by both coalition leaders.

“Stuart Nash’s comments were sexist and wrong. 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,” Hipkins said.

Hipkins then accused Luxon of condemning Nash’s comments about National MP Katie Nimon while taking no action over a string of controversial remarks by NZ First minister Shane Jones.

“Christopher Luxon is very selective in the way he seems to approach standards of ministerial conduct. He’s right that Stuart Nash’s recent outburst was unacceptable, but so was Shane Jones’ insinuations about him performing oral sex on a visiting foreign leader, Winston Peters making masturbation jibes live on TV and Shane Jones’ outright racism towards Indians, yet the Prime Minister did absolutely nothing about any of that.

“Yesterday’s events were a stark reminder that a vote for any of the three parties currently in government is a vote for more of the same.”

Nash called MP who took parental leave ‘Laziest MP I’ve ever come across’

Nash resigned late on Wednesday after coming under fire for text messages in which he described National MP Katie Nimon as the “laziest MP I’ve ever come across”, criticising her for taking maternity leave after the birth of her son.

The texts were revealed by former Attorney-General Chris Finlayson on his Cross Party Lines podcast. Stuff has seen the messages.

Nimon, who had a baby boy in May 2025, said she took 10 weeks’ leave before returning to electorate work part-time and resumed her parliamentary duties after six months. She described Nash’s remarks as “absolutely” sexist.

“A lot of people out there want to see working mums become representatives in government, and showing that we can do it with empathy,” she said.

“Perhaps that’s not what he sees a good MP is, but I know that the community that voted me in like to see that kind of person be their representative.”

Speaking to TVNZ’s Breakfast on Thursday, Nimon said she had laughed when she first heard Nash’s comments.

“Things don’t hurt as much when they’re not true,” she said.

Nimon again corrected Nash’s account, saying she took 10 weeks off after the birth of her son before returning to electorate work, while she was away from Parliament for six months.

“I chose to go back to work and represent my community after 10 weeks, but I have friends that have taken nine months off or 12 months off and so they should.”

Nimon said Nash was a classic example that “he probably acts before he thinks” and had made his views of women “very clear”.

She said Nash’s failure to apologise — “which I expected he wouldn’t” — helped Luxon make his decision.

Asked whether Nash had apologised, Nimon replied: “No, unless he’s texted me while I’ve been standing here with you, Tova.”

Before Peters confirmed Nash’s resignation, Luxon publicly ruled him out of any future Cabinet role if National formed a government with New Zealand First after the election.

“Whether reports of Stuart Nash’s resignation as a NZ First candidate are true or not, I am making clear he will not serve as a minister in my government,” Luxon wrote on X.

“After several instances of poor behaviour, some politicians will claim he has changed. His lack of contrition after comments about one of my MPs’ maternity leave this evening shows he hasn’t.”

Hipkins’ criticism comes just days after Luxon labelled Shane Jones’ “take off your knee-pads” remark about politicians attending an event for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “crass”, “unprofessional” and “unacceptable”, but did not remove him from his ministerial roles.

Jones denied the comment was a sexual innuendo, saying critics had read “luridity” into what he described as a “harmless and innocuous” remark, suggesting it could just as easily have referred to “gardening or volleyball”.

He has also drawn criticism over comments about Indian migration, including referring to a “butter chicken tsunami”, which he defended as “hyperbole”.

In a statement provided to Stuff on Wednesday, Nash did not apologise to Nimon, instead saying he had “real respect for any working parent raising a newborn alongside a demanding job”.

After his resignation was announced, Nash expanded on that response in a Facebook post, again stopping short of apologising to Nimon.

He said he had decided to withdraw after discussions with the New Zealand First leadership because a private message had become “a significant distraction” and he did not want it to cost the party or the people of Napier “the campaign they deserve”.

Nash said that as “a husband and a father of four (including two strong, independent daughters)”, he had “real respect for any working parent” and regretted that his words “were open to an interpretation I never intended”.

“I could have made my point far better,” he wrote.

Nash said he had been trying to argue that Napier deserved “an MP who fights hard for this region, in the electorate and in Wellington”, and said he would continue advocating for Hawke’s Bay in other ways.

Nash was sacked from Cabinet in 2023 after leaking confidential Cabinet discussions to business donors. He had previously resigned his police portfolio after admitting he improperly discussed a court case with the Police Commissioner.