![\"Maiki](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4MC1ZYH_copyright_image_260786.jpeg\")
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\nFile photo. Maiki Sherman at Parliament,
\nPhoto: Aotearoa Media Collective\n<\/p>\n
The Finance Minister says she shut down an event in her office last year after “offensive language” was used during a function she hosted for press gallery journalists.<\/p>\n
Nicola Willis held pre-Budget drinks in her office in May last year where an incident between two journalists is alleged to have happened.<\/p>\n
Political commentator Ani O’Brien wrote on her Substack page on Tuesday morning that TVNZ political editor Maiki Sherman allegedly used a homophobic slur against Stuff journalist Lloyd Burr, which led to the drinks in Willis’ office being shut down.<\/p>\n
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\nFile photo.AM Show hosts Lloyd Burr and Melissa Chan-Green during their final show.
\nPhoto: screenshot\n<\/p>\n
Nicola Willis told RNZ in a statement on Tuesday that she was “out of the room for a few minutes and returned to hear offensive language being used”.<\/p>\n
“I ended the event at that point,” she said.<\/p>\n
“The following day I checked in on the welfare of the reporter at whom the language was directed. He advised me he did not want to take the matter any further. I respected his decision.”<\/p>\n
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Photo: RNZ \/ Mark Papalii\n<\/p>\n
In response to the allegations a spokesperson for TVNZ says, “we do not comment on employment matters”.<\/p>\n
Stuff has also responded to the allegations in a statement saying, “Stuff Group stands by, and has complete faith in, Lloyd Burr’s account of the events and his conduct in Minister Willis’ office last May”.<\/p>\n
“We will continue to respect his wishes not to comment further on what occurred that night,” a spokesperson told RNZ.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday on her way to Question Time, Willis told reporters she had nothing further to add to her statement.<\/p>\n
She said she wasn’t in her office at the time, but when she returned “clearly” a dispute had broken out and a slur was used, “a word that I didn’t enjoy hearing, that I don’t think should ever be used.”<\/p>\n
“The dispute continued and at the point I ended the function.”<\/p>\n
Willis said she was “absolutely not” involved in what was published by O’Brien on Substack.<\/p>\n
“I have absolutely not been involved in talking to that blogger, in being involved in any way – in fact, I have worked to keep it as private as possible due to my concern for the individual who was the subject of the slur and their desire for it not to enter the public domain.”<\/p>\n
Willis said she recognised she’s publicly accountable and the comments she offered were in respect of that.<\/p>\n
She said the matter was for TVNZ.<\/p>\n
Ministers respond<\/p>\n
Broadcasting Minister Paul Goldsmith said he wasn’t going to give an opinion. “I wasn’t there, I don’t know.”<\/p>\n
“Some allegations have been raised, and they should be looked at, but it’s not something that I’m directly involved in.”<\/p>\n
He said he hadn’t spoken to Willis about it, and didn’t plan to, adding “it’s something for TVNZ to deal with”.<\/p>\n
Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour said if the incident was accurately reported, it was “absolutely disgraceful”.<\/p>\n
He also said it was a “disgraceful double standard” it hadn’t been reported earlier.<\/p>\n
“It’s clearly a breach of the standards of Parliament. But the issue is not that it happened. The issue is that there’s been a conspiracy of silence around it for such a long period of time.<\/p>\n
“I think we should all just be glad that one woman with a Substack actually made it a story, because we all know that in the same circumstances, a member of Parliament would have got wall-to-wall coverage night after night after night, don’t we?”<\/p>\n
On whether reporters and politicians should be held to the same standard, Seymour said he didn’t think they should be “exact”, that “there should be some proportionality”.<\/p>\n
Winston Peters, who shares a ministerial floor with Willis, said he heard a “bit of a shindig” going on that night. He said he didn’t have a “glass to the window” but there was “a bit too much noise going on”.<\/p>\n
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said he’d only seen the media commentary, so “I can’t really comment”.<\/p>\n