In a belated u-turn Labour's Chris Hipkins has taken responsibility for one of his MP's using Question Time to quote a newspaper column that called female ministers the c-word.
The party leader fronted reporters at Parliament on Thursday - a media appearance usually filled by his deputy Carmel Sepuloni - to take the rap for Labour MP and former minister for women, Jan Tinetti.
Parliament descended into chaos on Wednesday after Tinetti put a question on notice to Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden - one of the ministers the c-word had been directed at - that quoted from the controversial Sunday Star-Times column.
It prompted a fiery response from van Velden, who denounced the use of the word, criticised Tinetti for not condemning the language used, and accused the journalist who wrote the piece of misogyny.
Hipkins had this week refused to condemn the c-word being used in the column, and on Wednesday following Question Time Tinetti stood by her question line in the House.
But on Thursday Hipkins u-turned, saying the issue had become a distraction from the "plight of low-paid women who are simply asking to be paid fairly".
"In so far as our quoting from a rather controversial comment piece yesterday meant the Labour Party was contributing to the distractions around that, I think we will own that.
"It would have been better if we had quoted from something else rather than that particular column," he said.
"The government desperately wants to move the debate away from pay equity, I think we did play into their hands in that regard a little bit yesterday, I think that was unfortunate."
Asked whether he was aware the question was going to be asked by Tinetti, he did not directly answer.
"We've got a process for signing off questions, it went all the way through that process, we collectively own that, so as leader of the Labour Party I'll own that."
Pushed on whether he personally approved it, he told RNZ, "as the leader of the Labour Party I'll accept responsibility for it".
Chris Hipkins says Labour may have played into National's hands with the c-word controversy as it distracted from the issue of pay equity. Photo: Reece Baker
On Thursday in Question Time Speaker Gerry Brownlee told the House he should never have allowed Tinetti's question to be heard.
"Although I note no party raised issues with the question during the pre-publication period.
"It was reasonable then to reach the assumption that the House had accepted the content of the question, as the House is, of course, the architect of its own procedure," he said.
And on the matter of van Velden using the c-word in her answer to Tinetti, Brownlee said he should not have "allowed the word used in response to the question to go unchecked".
"The member concerned may wish to think about a belated action to uphold the dignity of the House."
Hipkins said he had changed his position on the appropriateness of the column because of the distraction it was causing, which was "taking away from what is a very fair issue".
"I think we made a mistake there, and when people affected by this see politicians fighting with each other and making it all about themselves, as we've seen in the last 24 hours, I think they'll feel somewhat despondent and dejected.
"We should get back to talking about the issues that affect them."
Hipkins said part of the reason he did not condemn the use of the c-word against female ministers was to avoid that aspect of the pay equity debate becoming the focus.
"I'm not going to appoint myself judge, jury, and executioner on things that people write in newspaper columns."
He acknowledged the language in the column was not words he would use.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
