New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters had no time for a coronavirus-denying man at an election event, shutting him down and calling him "sunshine".
Mr Peters is the leader of New Zealand First, the junior partner of the country's governing coalition, led by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's Labour party.
He was taking questions from the audience after giving a speech at the event in Tauranga on Wednesday when a man with a North American accent stood up and asked for extra proof that the coronavirus exists.
“Where’s your evidence that there’s a virus that causes the disease?” the man said, before being interrupted by Mr Peters.
“Sit down, sit down, sit down,” Mr Peters said.
“We’ve got someone who obviously got an education in America. 220,000 people have died in the US, where there are eight million cases to date. We’ve got 79,000 cases just today, probably in India, and here is someone who gets up and says ‘the Earth is flat’.
“Sorry sunshine, wrong place,” Mr Peters said, to applause.
New Zealanders are voting in the country’s election on 17 October.
The poll was delayed by a month due to an outbreak of COVID-19 in Auckland.
According to the website of the country’s ministry of health on Wednesday, New Zealand has recorded 1,518 COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic.
