You may have forgotten already, either intentionally or not, there was a general election this year.
It got pretty crazy, some would even say it reached "peak cray".
There was a lawsuit from a famous rapper, a few
misplaced "jokes" and comments, a blow out or two by MPs and party press
secretaries, and a little book about dirty politics -all before the
country even got to the polls.
With the end of the year approaching and "Best of"
lists seemingly mandatory, this election special of top political
blunders condenses the most weird and sometimes farcical moments from
the campaign trail.
'Rap God' Eminem sues the National Party:
Well, not Marshall Mathers himself, but publishers
of his copyright. When National's campaign ad was released – the one
with the row boat, remember? – it had a few people rapping to a very
familiar tune.
The legal action was started, with allegations the ad used the rapper's hit 'Lose Yourself' from the film
8 Mile.
Campaign manager Steven Joyce insisted it was "pretty legal" and the
party used music from a recognised production music supplier. His
response was picked up by British satirist John Oliver who made light of
the situation on his US show.
Key calls Kim Dotcom a 'sugar daddy'
It was a comment from the
Prime Minister on RadioLIVE
which drew criticism of him being sexist, after calling Dotcom Internet
Party leader Laila Harre's "sugar daddy" because he bankrolled the
party. He stood by his comments, saying if he wasn't putting up the $3
million for the campaign, "she wouldn't be there". Harre,
unsurprisingly, found the comment deeply offensive. The money didn't
matter in the end anyway, because the party's high risk strategy of
coat-tailing into Parliament on Hone Harawira's Te Tai Tokerau seat
failed spectacularly.
David Cunliffe's wife outed as Twitter bully
If you think politicians were under pressure during
the election campaign, spare a thought for their families. Under David
Cunliffe's leadership, the Labour Party suffered one of its worst
defeats in its almost 100 year history. His wife Karen Price apologised
for
setting up an anonymous Twitter account to attack Cunliffe's rivals and critics, citing post-election "media pressure". She said sorry and later deleted the account.
Winston's joke hits the Wong note:
New Zealand First's campaign launch was derailed by a
joke he made in his speech, which was labelled racist by some. He
insisted his "
two Wongs don't make a white"
joke was funny and anyone didn't laugh were the "language Nazis". The
Race Relations Commissioner kind of defended him, saying while it was
inappropriate, it wasn't racist. Members of the Chinese community
claimed the comment was pretty old school, but still "seriously off
base".
Colin Craig's music knowledge criminal
Throughout the campaign, at least according to the
seemingly innumerable polls, the Conservative Party could have
conceivably made it into Parliament. And with a star on the rise, the
party's leader Colin Craig allowed 3 News to spend some time with him on
the election trail. When asked what his
favourite New Zealand band
was, he said he was loyal to Dave Dobbyn "or Police or something like
that". But hang on. The Police as in quintessential English rock band
featuring Sting?
Puffed up little blowout
Remember
the Internet Mana Party? Their election launch at Western Springs
College, on the same day as the National Party, was meant to set the
tone for their election campaign, and in hindsight, it actually kind of
did. The event was going relatively smoothly until it was thrown into
disarray by press secretary Pam Corkery who verbally abused journalists
wanting to talk to the Internet Party's founder Kim Dotcom about
hacking. She coined one of the more colourful phrases of the campaign
trail: "
You puffed-up little s**t".
Hone takes the high road on cannabis
The other half of the Internet Mana alliance also had a bit of a blowout, after Mana leader Hone Harawira
walked away from an interview
with political reporter Tova O'Brien after one question about a U-Turn
by Mana around the legalisation of cannabis. Mana had been one of the
toughest opponents of decriminalising cannabis, but the party changed
its stance to be more in line with the Internet Party which was for it.
Labour candidate's less than positive comment
Labour's
"Vote Positive" slogan suffered some very negative media coverage after
candidate Steve Gibson, ranked 56 on the list, made a derogatory
comment on a Facebook post about Prime Minister John Key.
Gibson
called Mr Key "Shylock", referring to a villainous Jewish money lender in Shakespeare's
Merchant of Venice,
apparently oblivious to its meaning. But regardless of that, the phrase
"nasty little creep with a nasty evil and vindictive sneer" also made
it into the post – no confusing that one. Gibson apologised and deleted
the comment and was given a final warning from the party's top brass.
It
didn't end there for Gibson though. Following Labour's disastrous
election loss, he attacked the party saying it should have someone like
him – "an outsider" - to lead it.
Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi!
OK,
it's not really a gaffe, but ACT Party's newest candidate and
subsequent leader David Seymour burst onto the political scene with an
unintentionally viral video introducing
himself and showing off his beloved Epsom electorate. The video was
shared left, right and centre, but Seymour took the inadvertent
attention in his stride, making the most of the media coverage. 3 News
reporter David Farrier caught up with Seymour on Epsom's leafy streets
to talk to him about the video. "The thing about making a video that may
go viral is that you don't know you're doing it until it's too late."
A question of trust
In the second leaders debate, Labour leader David Cunliffe
got tripped up
on by John Key on crucial details of the party's flagship, but complex
Capital Gains Tax. Key asked Cunliffe whether a house in a trust would
be exempt from the tax, but he stumbled in his answer. Key attacked his
opponent on the policy, but he too got his facts wrong saying the family
home in a trust would be included in the tax (they weren't), and
300,000 homes were in trusts whereas the census shows it's more like
215,000. Cunliffe clarified the position the next day, explaining he
wanted to be "dead sure" of the facts before answering.
Honourable mention:
Judith Collins attacks the media:
An honourable mention goes to Judith Collins who had
a bizarre interview with 3 News reporter Brook Sabin.
It came in the wake of Maurice Williamson's resignation as minister
over a political scandal involving a Chinese businessman in May and
pressure over her connection to export company Oravida of which her
husband is a director. Ms Collins was being attacked relentlessly by
Opposition MPs and under constant pressure from media about a trip she
made to the company's Shanghai office during an official trip. She
verbally attacked TVNZ journalist Katie Bradford, claiming she'd asked
her for help getting her ex-partner a job with the police – something Ms
Bradford denied.
3 News
