Judith Collins says the daughter of Police Minister Poto Williams wasn't at the meeting where she said people want to "bottle" her mother, so shouldn't believe the "malicious and nasty" way her comments have been interpreted.
Collins, National Party leader, was talking about Williams at a meeting in Kerikeri on July 23. The NZ Herald's David Fisher quoted her as telling supporters "a lot of people want to bottle her", leaving a pause "for the implication to set in" before clarifying she meant to "keep Williams in a bottle like a genie".
The Police Minister on Tuesday said her daughter was now fearing for her mother's safety.
"I think Judith Collins just really needs to think about what she says before she says it, and I'm sure that if somebody had said that to her that her family would be feeling the same way."
Collins told The AM Show on Wednesday interpreting her comments as promoting violence is "utterly ridiculous", and said Fisher - "never a close friend of mine" - had written "very clearly" she meant people wanted to stick Williams inside a bottle, not hit her with it.
"I was talking about she's like a genie that you have in a bottle and you bring her out every now and again and she says something silly and then you pop her back in. That's clearly it," said Collins, questioning where "the mischief" was now coming from.
"I'm never going to say anything positive about Mr Fisher, but… it's not coming from Mr Fisher. It's actually coming from whoever told Poto Williams' daughter that I'd said such a nasty thing about her mother. I think her mother is the worst Police Minister I've ever seen - that I will stand by, no problem at all."
It's not the first time Collins has claimed comments she's made that could be heard as a threat have been misinterpreted. During the election campaign last year she said "disgraceful" investigative journalist Nicky Hager "still needs to meet his maker".
She later clarified what she meant was the "Christian" belief that "we're all going to die one day and we're going to have to justify our actions".
Collins earlier this year defended newspaper columnist Rachel Stewart, who told a social media user she'd like to "invite my gun-toting sisters over, strip this wee f****r naked, let him loose in my back paddock, jump on the tray of the ute, and hunt him down with spotlights while whooping & hollering & drinking", calling Stewart a "good person".
Police visited Stewart after she made the post on Twitter, temporarily suspending her firearms licence. Stewart has since claimed it was satire, "based on the well-known comedy tropoe of 'gun-toting women' as popularised in movies like Thelma and Louise".
Collins wondered if she'd also get a visit as a result of her 'bottle' comment.
"Imagine if I got a knock on the door from the police to be told that I had been hateful. Well, you know. It's ridiculous."
