On Tuesday evening, the Government released a slew of documents relating to Clare Curran and the RNZ controversy.
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Most of the documents are unremarkable - emails between officials, the already-released text messages between Clare Curran and Carol Hirschfeld. A text message from Ms Curran to RNZ chair Richard Griffin was of interest - she seemed to ask him to correct the record sooner than the date he could physically appear at Select Committee.
But the strangest and most mysterious part of the document dump was one intriguing email subject-line:
"FWD: My little pony is racist"
The email was sent from the Prime Minister's office to Ms Curran's office, with the note "I'm attaching an acknowledged email for your Minister's consideration".
The entire content of the message was redacted as "out of scope".
When Newshub asked Ms Curran about the content of the email, she said she has no idea.
"I'm sure it's a meme. One of my sons was into My Little Pony at one point, so I know even grown-ups who are into it.
"I'm sure it was light-hearted."
EXTREMELY IMPORTANT UPDATE:
The Government has responded to Newshub queries and released the highly anticipated My Little Pony email.
The email appears to be sent by a constituant who has asked the Prime Minister to have My Little Pony "banned or at least restricted in NZ".
The email was likely forwarded on to Ms Curran because she has responsibility for broadcasting. The Minister's lack of memory of the email indicates banning My Little Pony is not on the agenda.
The email was swept up in an OIA that asked for all correspondence between the Prime Minister's office and Ms Curran's office.
The email links to a 2010 Ms Magazine article with the headline: "My Little Homophobic, Racist, Smart-Shaming Pony".
The article says "the only black ponies in the TV show My Little Pony are slave ponies to the white overlord."
The initial article prompted a rebuttal from an artist on the show.
The artist argues "colour has never, ever been depicted as a race indicator for the ponies" and the colour of the guards was picked "arbitarily."
But it's possible we've now fallen down a rabbit hole.
Newshub.
