in mere seconds and with just one question, a 17-year-old girl single-handedly – and quite accidentally – facilitated one of the most talked about moments from New Zealand’s 2020 general election.

Appearing via video link during the TVNZ leader’s debate, Aigagalefili“Fili”Fepulea’i-Tapua’i asked Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and opposition leader Judith Collins what they would do about the fact that Pasifika kids were having to leave school early to provide for their families. She was met with Judith saying, “I understand actually, my husband is Samoan, so talofa…”

In a way, that moment changed Fili’s life. In the ways that really mattered though, it changed nothing at all.

“My family and my two best friends were watching with me at home, and we were interested because I’m not sure if the leaders had ever had to answer a question like that before. I was thinking, ‘I hope they say something really encouraging to our youth.’ But then Judith was like, ‘My husband’s Samoan, so talofa’ and we were all just cracking up. My phone was blowing up like, ‘Oi, she did not just say that!’ And then came all the memes!”

Funny as it seemed, Fili says it was ultimately “disappointing”, because while Judith did go on to answer Fili’s question, explaining that her husband also had to leave school for a time at 15, the fact that she led by implying she knew the struggle because of her Samoan husband completely overshadowed anything that followed.

Not only did it become a nationwide