Laws doubles down before apology as Luxon rules him out of Cabinet

Summarised by Centrist

National leader Christopher Luxon has ruled out Michael Laws serving as a minister after the NZ First candidate mocked Opportunity Party candidates and described the party as an expression of authoritarian metropolitan liberalism. 

Laws doubled down on the remarks before later apologising following a party reprimand.

Speaking on The Platform, Laws targeted Opportunity candidate Kayla Kingdon-Bebb after appearing alongside her at an election debate.

He described Kingdon-Bebb as “rather severe-looking” and compared her to an “officious primary school teacher”. Laws commented on her dress and makeup before asking: “Can you imagine what it’s like post-sex? Did I say that out loud? Yes, I did.”

Laws then attacked Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong after she said the party might work with NZ First if it abandoned rhetoric she considered divisive and dangerous.

He accused Wong of adopting a “stern, disapproving” manner and said her comments revealed “the authoritarian fascist that always lurks within the typical metropolitan liberal”.

Before apologising, Laws used his subsequent Platform programme to defend what he called a “really puckish editorial”.

“Can I ask how that’s sexist?” Laws said. “Apparently, I’m not allowed to criticise them at all.”

He suggested the NZ Herald report must have been written by a woman under 30 who had studied sociology, adding: “No sense of humour.”

Laws called the responses from Opportunity and the Greens “hilarious” and a “self-parody”. Addressing Wong, he said: “Lady, you are everything we rail against when we come to the teals and their complete sense of entitlement and the belief they are better than anyone else.”

“If I’ve offended you this morning, you deserve to be offended,” he said.

Luxon called the remarks “stupid, absolutely stupid” and ruled Laws out of his prospective Cabinet.

“He’s not gonna be a minister in my government, period,” Luxon said.

NZ First leader Winston Peters said the language was unacceptable and Laws would be “told off”, but rejected calls for further consequences.

ACT leader David Seymour described the comments as “gross” and “stupid”, while Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said the campaign had become consumed by petty personal attacks.

Editor’s note: Originally from the United States, Kayla Kingdon-Bebb co-authored He Puapua, the 2019 working-group report proposing a pathway to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in New Zealand. 

Kingdon-Bebb has said the report sought to make Māori self-determination manifest in New Zealand’s “laws, institutions and policies”. She has specifically identified ideas including an upper house, recognition of Indigenous self-government structures and delegated iwi or hapū delivery of child and family services. 

There is also an obvious double standard. In 2025, Andrea Vance described six centre-right female ministers as women prepared to be “c…ts” to other women. Brooke van Velden condemned the column as gendered and misogynistic, but Vance’s line was later celebrated as Massey University’s Quote of the Year, winning 41 percent of nearly 4,000 votes. 

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