National MP Mark Mitchell is also left looking for a partner to duke it out with after his political rival Police Minister Stuart Nash declined.
However, Nash was more than happy to mount his own show, Fighting - Talk for Life, from the safety of behind the microphone.
Nash took several verbal jabs at Mitchell as he was explaining he was too busy – rather than too chicken – to step up. “You have to be incredibly fit to do three rounds. Obviously Mark isn’t,” was one of them. Mitchell’s response to Beehive Diaries was to quote Elvis Presley: “A little less conversation, a little more action please”.
So could Swarbrick take on Mitchell? “Yeah, I’ll do Mark Mitchell. I reckon I could take him.”
CU Next Time, Hosking
Finance Minister Grant Robertson has clearly lived a less sheltered life than Mike Hosking. After Hosking’s innocent “see you next Tuesday” farewell to PM Chris Hipkins on Tuesday, Hosking admitted he had not known the seamier meaning of the phrase, a crude insult from an acronym of the phrase. Robertson told Hosking that he had known what the term meant – although a straw poll of Cabinet had only a 50 per cent strike rate. He then farewelled Hipkins with a cheery “see you next time”. Which would, of course, be exactly the same initials.
A science v religion debate writ small
Act’s climate change spokesman Simon Court is clearly not keen on people making claims without scientific backing. So after Climate Change Minister James Shaw referred to the Auckland floods as a “Biblical flood,” Court put in a question asking “what records exist, if any, which would allow the meaning of a Biblical flood to be evaluated?”
Shaw is clearly not keen on people asking stupid questions. So he replied “Biblical flood’ is a commonly used metaphor. The member can look up the meaning of the word ‘metaphor’ at www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com.”
Grant Robertson tackles the age-old question: What is a sport?
Sports Minister Grant Robertson appeared before a select committee to talk all sports on Wednesday. The first question asked about funding for e-sports (online sports, such as boxing, which some people may describe as gaming).
Robertson began by saying it had raised the “terrific debate” on what constituted a sport.
“When I was involved in University Sports New Zealand many years ago, the argument was that you had to sweat in order [for it] to be a sport. Having watched e-sports, there’s plenty of sweating goes on.”
At this point, committee chair Angie Warren-Clark chipped in: “So menopause is a sport then?”
Robertson replied that he’d leave that to Warren-Clark to judge - “[I] wouldn’t want to go there”.
