National leader Judith Collins is philosophical about her husband receiving racist abuse after controversial social media posts.
Collins spoke to media after David Wong-Tung, shared memes on Facebook from a page called the National Party's Meme Working Group, including one comparing Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to Marvel character The Incredible Hulk.
He faced a barrage of social media criticism and was attacked online himself with racist comments.
Asked about attacks on her husband online, Collins said: "These things happen".
She reiterated that she did not post the memes herself.
The meme, showing Ardern tinged green and labelled "The Incredible Sulk", is captioned:
"Don't make me angry. You won't like me when I'm angry."
The green school and growing crystals
Collins this morning said the level of anger from other schools over the Government's $11.7m infrastructure spend on New Plymouth's private Green School was clear during her visit to the city yesterday.
She said if there is no contract with the school, the funding should be reversed.
Asked about the school's curriculum, she said there is "possibly not a huge amount of support for growing crystals and planting them", referring to a "sacred ceremony" run by a school parent that included planting crystals with the school's students.
Collins said the government should release the business case, including any analysis from the Treasury, that led to the funding being approved.
She also said the Government was playing catch-up on testing border-facing workers, and ports should also be taken seriously given how contagious Covid-19 is.
Collins said she was in the South Island last week and people in Invercargill were "very grumpy" about still being in alert level 2.
Collins said she didn't have the same information the Government had, so she wasn't saying she wanted the South Island at alert level 1.
She said she was concerned about the lack of productivity and had not made any decisions about moving the minimum amount of statutory leave to 10 days.
She said care had to be taken about exploring deporting Brenton Tarrant to Australia because he had to spend the rest of his life behind bars without parole, and different states in Australia had different rules.
"We've been together for 41 years. I've never been able to get him to do anything I tell him to do," she said.
