Journalist who broke Mike Laws’ sexist comment story addresses ‘claims and conspiracies’ on reporting
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The Herald journalist who broke the Michael Laws story says the “claims and conspiracies” around the reporting are unfounded, while a political veteran believes the controversy is unlikely to hurt New Zealand First’s support.
On his show on The Platform, Laws made remarks about Opportunity Party’s female candidates, comparing some to primary school teachers, commented on another’s hemline, called them “stern” and “princesses” and questioned what their face would look like “post-sex”.
The comments were made last Wednesday but had flown under the radar until the Herald’s reporting.
After outrage, Laws yesterday apologised, while NZ First leader Winston Peters has said his candidate’s potential future as an MP was a “live issue”.
Senior correspondent Katie Bradford broke the story on the Herald’s political live blog and discussed her reporting on the latest episode of Election 2026: The Podcast.
On social media platforms and in commentary, there have been accusations the story was deliberately timed to run the week of the election or “held” by the media.
Bradford refutes that.
“This is a story that moved really quickly, and I want to address some of the claims and conspiracies around this. I was the reporter who broke the story. I got sent the video yesterday morning [Wednesday] at about 10.30am, and we had it up on the blog within 15 minutes. There was no sitting on the story,” Bradford said.
“Someone sent it to me. Yes, it was on air last week, last Wednesday. For whatever reason, no one had picked it up in that time. As soon as I saw it, I thought, ‘You know, this is going to become a story’, and put it up.
“There was no discussion about whether we wait. There was no intention to put it out in election week, which seems to have been some of the theory out there. It wasn’t a stitch-up about Opportunity. It was literally, ‘Here is what Michael Laws had to say’.”
The story moved quickly in terms of reaction because all political leaders had reporters with them on the campaign trail.
“Adam [Pearse] was literally heading out to Winston. I was heading out to the Greens. We had Thomas [Coughlan] with Christopher Luxon,” Bradford said.
“We had reporters everywhere. We were able to get responses very quickly and to that story, and that’s how it all kind of moved very, very quickly. But there was absolutely no sitting on that story.”
Herald deputy political editor Adam Pearse said no one picking up on Laws’ comments for a week is a reality in a world with so many media outlets, social media channels and opportunities for other appearances daily.
“People may be surprised to learn that it is quite difficult to keep across everything that the politicians say all of the time,” Pearse said.
“Especially with social media. The parties are putting out their own interviews. They’re going on podcasts, radio shows, all that kind of thing. It is incredibly hard to get across everything ... things can move so quickly.”
Luxon also moved quickly to rule Laws out of any future Cabinet, with a snap press conference for travelling media on the National Party campaign bus.
“Look, as soon as the news would’ve broken, this is exactly what [National] would’ve thought to do, and just repeating what they did with Stuart Nash, basically,” Pearse said.
“To be able to show to their voters the authority that he wants to show that he has. Particularly when he has been criticised for not expressing that authority when it comes to Winston Peters and David Seymour during this term.”
Seasoned political campaign manager Tim Hurdle said the controversy and criticism around the comments were unlikely to affect NZ First’s support.
“Let’s face it, urban liberals weren’t voting for New Zealand First,” Hurdle told the podcast.
“Well, I’m impressed. Michael Laws always is controversial and generally gets fired, but this seems to be a bit of a new record,” Hurdle said, discussing the issue on the podcast with the Herald’s Bradford and Pearse.
“I think it’s one of those issues which is a real problem for New Zealand First. They have a demographic that’s probably out of touch with a lot of where modern thinking is. And when people start riffing on stuff like that, they will get in trouble. So I think it has been probably damaging to the centre but probably won’t have a massive impact on their actual base support.”
Pearse agreed with Hurdle and Bradford that it was unlikely to damage NZ First support.
“People will have priced in controversial comments supporting New Zealand First anyway, so I don’t know whether you’re going to see a massive hit on their level of support.”
Election 2026: The Podcast is a video and audio series hosted by NZ Herald Senior Correspondent Katie Bradford. She is joined by expert guests from across the political spectrum to unpack the campaigns, policies and moments defining the race.
Watch the full episode of Election 2026: The Podcast at the top of this story, or listen on the iHeart app, or wherever you get your podcasts.