{"id":534326,"date":"2026-07-19T23:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T23:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/534326\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T23:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T23:52:12","slug":"crass-pm-responds-to-jones-take-off-your-knee-pads-remark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/534326\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Crass’: PM responds to Jones’ ‘take off your knee pads’ remark"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has responded to what he calls “crass” comments by New Zealand First deputy leader Shane Jones over the weekend.<\/p>\n

At the New Zealand First convention in Auckland, Jones made the comments when speaking on other political parties dealing with India while referencing the recent visit<\/a> of its Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.<\/p>\n

“The next time you go to an ethno-nationalist rally to receive a foreign leader, take off your knee pads.”<\/p>\n

Speaking to RNZ this morning, Luxon labelled Jones’ comments as “crass and unprofessional”.<\/p>\n

“I’m actually super proud of our Indian FTA. I’m actually proud of the team and all the efforts that went in to host a a significant world leader, prime minister Modi.”<\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Viaduct Events Centre in Auckland on June 11, 2026. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

Luxon added it was “a bit hypocritical for New Zealand First to be against the Indian FTA while they’ve got their colleague, the Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson<\/a> out there in India trying to sell tariff-free New Zealand wool under the FTA to Indians.”<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Post, Jones said the comment was “a common expression” he used to demonstrate “a ridiculous level of obsequiousness”.<\/p>\n

In the past, Jones had likened Indians coming to New Zealand under the Free Trade Agreement as a “butter chicken tsunami”<\/a>. After criticism, Jones said he used the comments as a hyperbole to get “cut through”<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has responded to what he calls “crass” comments by New Zealand First deputy leader…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11508,111,137,43,139,69,135],"class_list":["post-534326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-christopher-luxon","tag-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand-first","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534326","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=534326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}