The Prime Minister released the following statement regarding the firing of the Minister of Defence:

"Nobody was more surprised than I when the former Minister of Defence made claims that this government has 'kept Muslims out' of New Zealand. The primary reason for my shock is that this has quite evidently not occurred, and secondary to that was the former Minister making this claim when immigration was so far outside his purview. I condemn totally the statements made by the former Minister as bigoted towards those of the Muslim faith, and slanderous towards this government - which has done none of the things he has claimed it has. As such, he will be replaced in his role as Minister of Defence by /u/Mattsthetic, and he will not be allowed to contest the coming General Election as a member of the ACT Party. I must reiterate that the former Minister had no responsibility for immigration, nor did this government implement the policies he claims it has - and no amount of disinformation spread by the opposition will change that."