Last week, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called an opposition rival an “arrogant prick.”
Now a transcript of the hot mic cock-up has been sold for more than $100,000 (around €60,000) at an auction to raise money for prostate cancer.
“Can’t say I expected this … a faux pas with the old mic in parliament has turned into $100,100 for the Prostate Cancer Foundation,” Ardern announced Thursday on Facebook, adding her thanks to David Seymour, leader of New Zealand’s libertarian ACT party, for being “a good sport.”
Seymour, member of parliament for Epsom on the North island, was on the receiving end of Ardern’s ire in parliament last week after asking a series of combative questions.
“He’s such an arrogant prick,” the prime minister mumbled, as she returned to her seat next to Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson. The remark was picked up by her microphone and preserved in the official parliamentary record, Hansard. She later apologized.
The incident aroused a lot of interest, but Seymour and Ardern have since buried the hatchet.
The auction winner “will receive a framed printout of the parliamentary Hansard co-signed by the Rt Hon prime minister, Jacinda Ardern and one-time arrogant prick, ACT party leader David Seymour,” the description of the auction reads.
“Standing up for pricks everywhere,” Seymour said. “I think it’s a great Kiwi ending to what could have been a nasty incident.”
