Winston Peters tells Speaker to ‘get fatty out’, apparently referring to the shadow leader of the House, Gerry Brownlee

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

On his last day as acting prime minister of New Zealand, Winston Peters has once again kicked a hornet’s nest, this time by fat-shaming a colleague in the middle of a parliamentary debate.

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Peters, who is leader of the New Zealand First party and deputy prime minister, and is acting prime minister until Thursday when Jacinda Ardern returns from maternity leave, called on the Speaker of the House to “throw fatty out” of parliament.

It seems Peters, who is a controversial figure, was speaking about the opposition National party’s Gerry Brownlee, the shadow leader of the House.

His comment came during a tense debate in parliament. Jeering from the benches was so loud that the Speaker said he could not hear what Tracey Martin, a New Zealand First MP, was saying.

“Opposition members’ barracking is coming through my mics, I’m first of all going to have the shadow leader of the House withdraw and apologise.”

At which point Peters interjected “Yeah, throw fatty out.”

Peters, has not shied away from controversy while he has been acting prime minister. Most notably he took a swipe at Australia last week, accusing it of “copying” the New Zealand flag and telling Australia to come up with its own one.

He also raised eyebrows shortly before taking over the prime ministership when he sued the heads of his own government’s departments after details of his superannuation overpayment were last year leaked to media.