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Leaders debate gets ugly

Mon 5 Sep 2005 In: New Zealand Daily News

Prime Minister Helen Clark has accused the National Party of bringing "a mob of hooligans" as their audience supporters at the last TVNZ leaders debate, claiming they shouted "personal abuse, ‘no-kids lesbo', ‘scrubber', ‘liar'". National Party leader Don Brash said that if National Party supporters had made those comments as Clark alleged, he did not condone it. The audience members were picked by National Party board member Scott Simpson, who says the people he picked simply reflected the range of mainstream National Party volunteers in Auckland. Some Young Nats were in the audience, but the average age of selected supporters was around 40. Helen Clark says Don Brash is a "hypocrite" for having said he was too gentlemanly to "take her on" at the TVNZ leader's debate, when "he came in with a mob of hooligans who chanted abuse every time I opened my mouth." National Party supporters from the audience say Helen Clark's allegations are "absolute crap"- that it was a boisterous crowd, but "there wasn't any of that sort of language". Supporters from both sides had been rowdy, and baited each other, especially during commercial breaks. Mark Sainsbury, who hosted the TVNZ debate, said that if he had heard the specific comments alleged by Clark, he would have "stepped in and done something about it”. He says Clark raised the matter with him, that he “didn't hear it, though that doesn't mean it didn't happen." TVNZ gives audience members a request for reasonable behaviour before live debates, while promoting what they call a "good audience atmosphere". The next leader's debate is on Thursday night, and the final Clark-Brash debate is on Thursday, 15 September.    

Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff

First published: Monday, 5th September 2005 - 12:00pm

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