Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark has given an extraordinary interview to comedian Guy Williams, in which he appeared unapologetic for using racial and sexuality slurs, repeating several multiple times, and kept asking Williams if he was homosexual.   

In the episode of New Zealand Today on Three, Williams said he wanted to get Clark to promise to never say the N-word again, after the mayor used it at a public event in Invercargill last year. 

Williams tried to give Clark a lesson in why its use was not appropriate and why it was all right to use the word queer. 

Clark appeared to not understand and repeatedly asked Williams if he was homosexual, as he “tended towards minority groups ... well, bent over towards them”. 

Guy Williams. 

Clark appeared to be enjoying himself in the interview and trying to challenge Williams with points that made him so frustrated he eventually pointed out that whole parts of society had passed Clark by and that he was ignorant on issues of race and sexuality. 

Clark responded that Williams could portray him that way. 

“I don’t feel I need to learn and improve,” he said. 

Clark did not answer his phone last night after the show aired, but told Stuff before the show he had not watched it and was not particularly interested in doing so. 

He said that at the end of the 90-minute interview, Williams stormed out, saying it was one of the worst interviews he had ever done. 

He claimed he had signed a non-disclosure agreement with the show, “which gave them a licence to say what they want”. 

“I don’t care,” he told Stuff. 

Clark repeatedly said in the episode he would only stop saying the N-word if Williams said it. 

The latter did, but it was edited from the show. Clark promised not to say it again. 

Williams asked in the programme if former mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt had been replaced with someone “even more cooked” than Sir Tim. 

Former Invercargill Mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt. Photo / Stephen Jaquiery, ODT 

“It seemed ridiculous that this man could be the mayor of a major city council.” 

In the episode Williams left the interview, but returned to find Clark holding a copy of a book that criticises supposed reinterpretations of the Treaty of Waitangi. 

Clark also told Stuff conspiracy theories discussed with Williams but not aired on the show concerned co-governance, and that his position was well-known.