National leader Christopher Luxon has described the online trolling by a Young Nat to female Christchurch politicians as utterly unacceptable, vile, toxic stuff.

The Christchurch Press reported that Jessee MacKenzie made an admission he was responsible for the toxic and targeted campaign against Christchurch City Councillor Sara Templeton, after the courts revealed his Christchurch flatmate, Young Nat Bryce Beattie, as the owner of the computer IP address linked to the harassment.

The pair have since resigned from the National Party.

Christopher Luxon told Chris Lynch in an interview “frankly, that behaviour from those young people in Christchurch was absolutely unacceptable, vile, toxic stuff.”

“That’s the stuff that I came to politics to stop. I want to do politics in a proper way in a decent way. We can disagree without being really personal, vindictive and toxic and misogynist, as I found those that messages.”

He said there was a conversation and investigation that took place after the story was in the media.

“They reflected on the code of conduct and made the decision to leave the party and that’s the entirely right decision.”

Luxon said “the behaviour is utterly unacceptable, rejected outright. We don’t need that in our politics here in New Zealand.”

When asked of the National Party would apologise the the female politicians who were targeted, Luxon said “I really commend them for the way they actually called the behaviour out.”

“I thought they were pretty brave calling it out and taking the actions they did. And commend them for that. And again, apologies for that.”

“I can tell you, many people in the National Party feel very disappointed or let down by those actions.”

“There’s just there’s no place for that in politics in New Zealand. I appreciate it’s pretty tough sport, it’s pretty brutal at times, we can disagree, without being disagreeable, without being personal. And that was pretty wild stuff.”