Beehive Diaries

PM calls Judith Collins a ‘Karen’ — and Collins reveals what she really thought of it and the Act Party milks it for a new voter base. And why did Paul Goldsmith have a moment of terror?

Wednesday

Day of the sledges

Sledge 1: The Prime Minister got a sledge in when Judith Collins was grilling her about hate speech proposals, noting Collins had tweeted asking if calling a middle-aged white woman a “Karen” would now be a crime.

“That is absolutely incorrect, and I apologise, [but] that means these laws will not protect that member from such a claim,” Ardern said to loud laughter from her team.

A “Karen” is a term for an entitled and demanding middle-aged white woman. The ever-enterprising Act Party was quick to spot its chance of a new voter pool: Karens. It promptly sent a press release headed “Act MP calls out hate speech against Karens”. It was from Act MP Karen Chhour.

Act made the most of the moment by then sending an email from Chhour to the 400-odd people called Karen on its email database.

It was titled “From one Karen to another: I’ve got your back”.

At least one Karen signed up as a financial member of the party soon afterward.

Collins was clearly not so amused, telling The Country the next day that being called a Karen was the equivalent of “pale, stale, male”.

“The PM has cultivated a very ‘nice’ persona, and what we saw yesterday was she was under attack and so she went for the personal. If the Prime Minister wants to get down there, I’m going to leave her there.”

Sledge II: Nanaia Mahuta betters the PM’s sledge.

Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta was taking questions from National’s Christopher Luxon, widely tipped as a future National leader, on the three waters reforms. “There is a compelling cause for change,” Mahuta said. She then looked at Luxon and suggested “[you] might want to take that line”.

Andrew Little, Eeyore

In the same question time, Speaker Trevor Mallard admonished MPs for making unseemly noises in Parliament, telling them he was getting more complaints than usual from the public about the standard of behaviour in Parliament.

Asked about it later, an Eeyorish Andrew Little said what he thought the problem might be: “It is the middle of the year, it’s dark in the morning, it’s dark at night. Everybody is looking forward to a lengthy recess to recover their equilibrium.”

Pressed further on the mid-winter blues, he went on: “Sometimes people’s nerves fray, people’s tempers fray, things don’t go quite the way people want, and it’s time to take a deep breath, say we are going to be better and pick ourselves up.”

It remains unclear whether Little was talking about the Speaker, or the MPs.

The Speaker is yet to provide evidence of the scale of this apparent influx in complaints – but recess starts at the end of next week.

Thursday

Goldsmith’s moment of fear

Speculation is rife as to who is next on Judith Collins’ hit list after her take-down of Todd Muller last Tuesday.

So Paul Goldsmith must have thought the worst when he got to work on Thursday morning and tried to get into the back entrance of Parliament only to discover his swipe card would not work.

Goldsmith may have reason to be more nervous than others: the mistake in National’s alternative fiscal plan under his watch was considered damaging to the party’s campaign. And as the party’s Epsom candidate, Goldsmith is reliant on being given a high list placing to continue his career. He eventually got in through another door.