Summarised by Centrist
Former Labour Cabinet Minister and now NZ First member Stuart Nash has apologised after making a crude remark on Sean Plunket’s The Platform when asked to define a woman.
Nash replied: “A woman is a person with a p…y and a pair of t..s,” before later phoning the show to ask for the comment to be deleted. Plunket refused.
Stuart Nash gets in trouble with his wife after answering “What is a woman?” in a live interview.
— The Platform NZ (@theplatform_nz) September 9, 2025
He later asked for the comment to be removed.
What should The Platform do? pic.twitter.com/21u4NhDq8V
Nash subsequently posted an apology on LinkedIn, calling his remark “crude and disrespectful” and saying it was “wrong and unacceptable”. He added, “Words matter, and I take full responsibility … I have immense respect for all women and this is not who I am or what I believe.”
A clear apology pic.twitter.com/9OCtdGiT65
— The Platform NZ (@theplatform_nz) September 9, 2025
NZ First leader Winston Peters at first doubted reports of the exchange, saying he would verify them himself. He later confirmed Nash’s words were “not acceptable,” while repeating his own definition of a woman as “a human adult female.” The controversy recalls a similar moment in 2023 when then-Prime Minister Chris Hipkins stumbled over the same question.