{"id":426506,"date":"2026-05-14T01:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T01:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/426506\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T01:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T01:07:08","slug":"judith-collins-calls-2020-talofa-comment-backlash-hysteria-from-wet-wipes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/426506\/","title":{"rendered":"Judith Collins calls 2020 \u2018talofa\u2019 comment backlash hysteria from \u2018wet wipes\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mplxTcLUMibHPxLgQP\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cFor those people who got themselves all excited and stupid, frankly, my husband is Samoan. He was born in Samoa. He was brought up there as a child, came to New Zealand when he was 8. His first language is Samoan.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Former National Party Judith Collins made the now infamous 'talofa' comment during a 2020 leaders' debate.\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Former National Party Judith Collins made the now infamous &#8216;talofa&#8217; comment during a 2020 leaders&#8217; debate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mplxTcLUMibHPxLgQP\" style=\"display:none\">Collins said the criticism came from people who \u201csee themselves as exceptionally progressive\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mplxTcLUMibHPxLgQP\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThey were looking at me, a, you know, white woman or palagi as Samoans call [it], and they\u2019re saying, \u2018Well, she can\u2019t use that\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mplxTcLUMibHPxLgQP\" style=\"display:none\">Most Samoans can trace their family lineage back to each other because of the Pacific nation\u2019s  small population, Collins said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mplxTcLUMibHPxLgQP\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cSo frankly, I thought it was a lot of hysteria from a whole bunch of wet wipes who wanted to judge me. So no, I was very annoyed with them, and I still am.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Retiring National Party minister Judith Collins in her office at Parliament. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell \" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Retiring National Party minister Judith Collins in her office at Parliament. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell <\/p>\n<p class=\"mplxTcLUMibHPxLgQP\" style=\"display:none\">The reaction was \u201cdeeply offensive to us as a family\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mplxTcLUMibHPxLgQP\" style=\"display:none\">Collins will wrap up a 24-year career in politics today to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/politics\/minister-and-former-national-leader-judith-collins-to-address-future-in-politics\/F3JJXFIBLJFBDOXMCCE5URMHDI\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/politics\/minister-and-former-national-leader-judith-collins-to-address-future-in-politics\/F3JJXFIBLJFBDOXMCCE5URMHDI\/\">become the new president of the Law Commission.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mplxTcLUMibHPxLgQP\" style=\"display:none\">The 67-year-old became leader of the National Party in 2020, while in Opposition against Jacinda Ardern\u2019s Labour Party.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mplxTcLUMibHPxLgQP\" style=\"display:none\">National lost that year\u2019s election as Labour achieved MMP\u2019s first-ever single-party majority.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mplxTcLUMibHPxLgQP\" style=\"display:none\">She was first elected to Parliament in 2002 after winning the then-Clevedon electorate seat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mplxTcLUMibHPxLgQP\" style=\"display:none\">She then won the Papakura electorate after Clevedon disappeared in boundary changes before the 2008 election, and has held the seat since.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mplxTcLUMibHPxLgQP\" style=\"display:none\">During her time in Parliament, Collins earned the nickname \u201cCrusher\u201d after her policy of crushing cars seized from criminals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cFor those people who got themselves all excited and stupid, frankly, my husband is Samoan. He was born&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[27341,8172,144403,115,430,36177,11220,48359,156,71,218749,41184,42445,111,139,69,24996,2687,218748,20110,66366,14036,218750],"class_list":["post-426506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-27341","tag-backlash","tag-bunch","tag-calls","tag-celebrities","tag-collins","tag-comment","tag-disgusted","tag-entertainment","tag-from","tag-hysteria","tag-infamous","tag-judith","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-reaction","tag-saying","tag-talofa","tag-thought","tag-wet","tag-whole","tag-wipes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426506","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=426506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}