'Plainly humour': Henry says Labour's outrage over 'shoot Hipkins' radio game ridiculous

A Labour MP is accusing Act’s Paul Henry of making a “death threat” against leader Chris Hipkins in a radio game, but the former broadcaster says there was no “violent rhetoric” and it was “plainly humour”.

Hipkins told the Herald: “With political leaders around the world actually being shot and killed, Paul Henry should know better”.

“New Zealanders expect leaders who take their responsibilities seriously, not treat politics like a circus audition.”

But Henry said he was “completely dumbfounded by their reaction”.

The new Act candidate was on Radio Hauraki this morning and asked to play a “quick game of shoot, shag, marry”.

It’s a variation of a parlour game in which participants are asked to choose between three people, in this instance, one to shoot, one to shag and one to marry.

The options given to Henry were Labour leader Chris Hipkins, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters and Prime Minister and National leader Christopher Luxon.

“You’ve got to shoot Hipkins, haven’t you?” Henry said. “There is no question ... You’ve got to shoot Hipkins. You’ve given me three choices, to be fair.”

He went on to say, “I’m shagging Winston”, meaning he’d marry Luxon.

“They say no publicity is bad publicity, but I might not come back here again,” Henry said.

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Paul Henry was announced as a new candidate for the Act Party last week. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

The comments have outraged some within the Labour Party.

Health spokeswoman Dr Ayesha Verrall was speaking on Newstalk ZB’s Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills when she said Henry’s comments were “absolutely disgusting”.

She called the interaction an “inappropriate game” and wanted to call out Henry for saying he’d shoot Hipkins.

“We can’t just let death threats go in our political conversation. There are nutters out there who feed off these sort of things, and one day we can be in the situation which the UK is in where Members of Parliament lose their lives. We have to have standards in how we talk about this.”

National MP Tim Costley, appearing alongside Verrall, said it was up to Act leader David Seymour to decide whether Henry’s comments amounted to a sackable offence.

“I would never expect to see that. I can imagine if that was a National Party MP, the Prime Minister would have some words,” Costley said.

Verrall interjected to say: “Tim, it’s a death threat. Just condemn it.”

Costley said he expected Henry would say it was “a game, it wasn’t a serious death threat”.

“We all know it wasn’t a serious death threat. I think Ayesha’s deeper point is where do you draw the line.”

Labour health spokeswoman Ayesha Verrall called the comments a "death threat". Photo / Mark Mitchell

Henry told the Herald he thought Labour’s reaction was “unbelievable” and “absolutely ridiculous to imagine that there is anything even vaguely related to violence in that”.

Henry said he was clearly joking.

“It is not a group of choices that one would ever want to be presented with, which I think I made very clear on live radio this morning.”

It was “not violent rhetoric”, but “plainly humour”.

“I’m sure they have much better things to do than become faux outraged about something like this.”

It appeared the Labour Party had “lost all vestige of a sense of humour”, Henry added.

Seymour told the Herald Labour knew the game was a joke and was trying to manufacture outrage.

“Labour know the shoot shag marry game is a joke, one that Radio Hauraki love to play. They know Paul doesn’t have any intention of doing anything to Mr Hipkins, unless they also think he was serious about shagging Mr Peters or marrying Mr Luxon, which I’m sure they don’t.

“Their manufactured outrage is tiring. People want politicians who are real, not ones that pretend to be outraged when we all know they’re really not. Paul is 100 per cent authentic, and I suspect that’s what’s getting to Labour,” Seymour said.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he didn’t think New Zealanders “would take tremendous offence from that”, but said it was an issue for Seymour and Hipkins.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese apologised earlier this month after saying he would shag singer Kylie Minogue during a similar game on a podcast. That followed condemnation of Albanese for participating in the game.

Henry was announced last week as Act’s latest candidate. The former television host has a controversial history, including making disparaging comments about Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and then-Governor-General Sir Anand Satyanand.

Seymour said Henry would “bring wit, intelligence, and a powerful voice to the Act team”.

“He is sharp, fearless, and an exceptional communicator. More importantly, he has a genuine love for New Zealand and a deep frustration at the opportunities we are wasting.”