{"id":29293,"date":"2025-09-18T08:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T08:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/29293\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T08:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T08:29:07","slug":"a-distraction-stuart-nash-dumped-from-us-trade-trip-after-crude-comments-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/29293\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A distraction\u2019: Stuart Nash dumped from US trade trip after crude comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cDon\u2019t know who told you I was dropped,\u201d he sent in a text message. \u201cI have just delayed my travel by three weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the Government<\/a> told a different story. Stanford\u2019s office referred RNZ\u2019s questions to Invest New Zealand, the agency which organised the delegation.<\/p>\n

Invest New Zealand then sent a written response, attributed to a spokesperson for Trade Minister Todd McClay.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Minister decided that Mr Nash\u2019s participation in the mission would be a distraction,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe thought it would be unfair to other members of the delegation to have to respond to questions from potential US investors, especially women, about Mr Nash\u2019s comments. Mr Nash was therefore informed he was no longer on the delegation.\u201d<\/p>\n

RNZ requested further comment from Nash after receiving the statement. Nash has yet to respond.<\/p>\n

The former Napier MP had already resigned <\/a>from his separate roles with recruitment firm Robert Walters and on the board of the Taxpayers\u2019 Union.<\/p>\n

The controversy erupted last week when Nash defined a woman as a \u201cperson with a p***y and a pair of t**s\u201d in an interview with digital broadcaster Sean Plunket.<\/p>\n

Nash later issued an apology on LinkedIn, describing his comments as \u201ccrude and disrespectful\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was wrong and unacceptable, and I apologise unreservedly for any offence that this comment may have caused. Words matter, and I take full responsibility for my actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have immense respect for all women and this is not who I am or what I believe, and I have let myself, my family and my friends down. I will work hard to rectify this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nash \u2013 who was sacked as a Labour minister over disclosing confidential information in 2023 \u2013 spoke at NZ First\u2019s annual convention over the weekend, where he floated his interest in running as a NZ First candidate next year.<\/p>\n

Stanford and the wider delegation of \u201cimmigration and investment private sector participants\u201d left for the United States on Monday and are due back this weekend.<\/p>\n

-RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cDon\u2019t know who told you I was dropped,\u201d he sent in a text message. \u201cI have just delayed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13790,74,5782,6650,28674,28673,20211,71,26478,6724,111,43,139,69,6723,584,1315,3040],"class_list":["post-29293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-a","tag-after","tag-comments","tag-craig","tag-crude","tag-distraction","tag-dumped","tag-from","tag-mcculloch","tag-nash","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-stuart","tag-trade","tag-trip","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}