National leader Christopher Luxon has taken a swipe at Newshub for its "unbelievable question" surrounding his beliefs in dinosaurs, in what he described as a "jump the shark moment".
On Wednesday Luxon joined AM against a backdrop of human hoardings and a person dressed in a bright green dinosaur costume following the "fantastic reporting" by Newshub on Tuesday night.
"I mean it was probably a jump the shark moment I thought for news in New Zealand, but apparently people were questioning my belief in dinosaurs."
The dinosaur questions from Newshub came after comedian and New Zealand Today presenter Guy Williams released a trailer online for his latest podcast episode.
Williams received an anonymous tip-off that claimed Air New Zealand had turned down a safety video idea that contained dinosaurs "because the CEO didn't believe they were real.".
Williams claimed the tip-off said the CEO at the time the video idea was refused was Luxon. Luxon was in charge of Air NZ from 2012 to 2020.
After failed attempts to interview Luxon on the matter Williams door-stopped the National leader after an event.
"What’s your favourite dinosaur?" Williams asked after passing through Luxon's security.
"T-Rex," Luxon replied.
Williams told Luxon that he'd heard a rumour the National leader didn't believe in dinosaurs, "T-Rex is a great dinosaur", Luxon replied, before getting in the back of car – where Williams asked again: "Do you believe dinosaurs are real?"
"See ya, bye," Luxon replied, leaving the question unanswered.
On Tuesday afternoon Luxon was asked directly if he believed dinosaurs roamed the earth.
"Absolutely," he said, taken aback before asking the reporter: "What kind of question is that?"
By Wednesday morning, Luxon had seen Newshub's reporting on Tuesday evening where his dinosaur belief dilemma was mentioned.
"It was a major story on Newshub, of course all the big issues being covered."
AM's Ryan Bridge asked: "Just to confirm you do think they were real right?".
Luxon, amused by the question, replied: "I just can't believe Newshub asked the question mate, it's all the big stories".
"It's a jump the shark moment I think for Newshub's news coverage, but absolutely believe in dinosaurs," he said.
"Unbelievable question, no idea why people are asking me that, but anyway."
Watch the moment above.
