The signed transcript of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern calling ACT leader David Seymour an "arrogant prick" in Parliament has hit $100,000 on TradeMe.
The moment in political history has been immortalised with a framed transcript from the official parliamentary record, Hansard. The political leaders signed it last Thursday and put the item on TradeMe to raise funds for the Prostate Cancer Foundation.
A bidding war has since erupted. On Saturday evening, bidding sat at $60,000 before jumping to $90,000 by the end of Sunday. Early on Monday morning, one keen bidder took it to $95,100 before adding a further bid of $100,000.
There have been 282 bids so far, with 5314 people watchlisting the item. The auction runs until 1:05pm on Thursday.
"We wanted to be able to say that 'we're helping pricks everywhere' and the prostate is about as close as we could get," Seymour told Newshub last week.
"We managed to have a laugh about it [and] hatched a plan to raise some money for a good cause."
The "arrogant prick" comment was made by Ardern in Parliament last Tuesday. After answering a question from Seymour, Ardern sat down and was caught on a hot microphone making the remark. She text him afterwards to say sorry and formally apologised in Parliament the next day.
The comment went international, with media outlets from around the world reporting on it. That included the BBC, the Guardian, the Daily Mail and Cosmopolitan magazine.
Seymour told AM Early he didn't understand why the world's media was so interested.
"It's been a bit of a job to say, 'Look, at the end of the day she texted me, she said sorry, I said good on you, merry Christmas and that's just the end of it.' They don't seem to understand that [and] I say, 'Look, it's just the Kiwi way.'
