“The people, without being of political preference, are really saying to you, look, for goodness sake, whatever you do, can you provide stability of government?’
Winston Peters used an expletive on air this morning during a clash with Ryan Bridge. Photo / Mark Mitchell
“Now that’s a clarion call from the voter that you’ve got to understand.”
Bridge pressed Peters on whether that stability included still ruling out Labour as a potential coalition partner, who showed exasperation after highlighting he’d announced it to the Herald‘s Audrey Young in 2022 and has maintained the position since.
“What’s wrong with you people? Do I need to come and put a brand on your head? We’re not going with Labour,” Peters said.
“Ryan, be fair. I haven’t been around this long to come on this programme to talk about that sort of w***er question.”
Bridge continued before circling back on the comment at the interview’s end, thanking Peters for his appearance and telling the audience: “Those were your w***y questions and those were his answers.”
According to the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA), w***er is considered a low-level offensive word in broadcasting scenarios, and is unlikely to breach industry standards.
Several BSA decisions in recent years have fallen short of proving it violates Offensive and Disturbing Content standards, although its acceptability remains subjective and open to interpretation.
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