Already we have what looks like an odds on favourite for the first Ministerial scalp.
Not Casey Costello who not only is in the process of wrecking the country’s response to smoking but did not tell Cabinet that the cost of her changes to the country would be $46 billion because of worsening health outcomes. She says that the data was outdated. It cannot be that outdated that the information could not have been presented with caveats.
It is Melissa Lee who is on the rocks.
I sort of feel sorry for her.
She is in a Government with a natural inclination to do nothing at all to supporting important sectors like the media. And the Government’s minority partners think that the media are too woke, way too left wing and the puppets of the previous Government thanks to the Public Journalism Interest Fund.
This is of course deranged nonsense but they either actually believe it or they think this is an important part of the culture war diversion of attention from the actually important issues so they are happy to go along. This is an international phenomenon which unfortunately has spread to Aotearoa New Zealand.
Melissa Lee has sat on her hands as Newshub has been devastated and TVNZ has shashed its commitment to news. These have been very dark days for New Zealand media.
Lee has not ruled out one possible solution, passing Labour’s Fair Digital News Bargaining bill.
But she is content to wait until May when it is due to be reported back. The urgency of the current situation has clearly passed her by.
She was left floundering last week trying to explain what was happening to the mythical Cabinet Paper that she had been preparing to address the crisis.
But it has since been revealed what has been happening in the background.
From Tova O’Brien at Newshub:
The plot thickens in the mystery of Broadcasting Minister Melissa Lee’s media support plan.
It’s been a month and a half since the Prime Minister tasked Lee to leap into urgent action and yet, crickets.
There are reports that Winston Peters is holding up the paper because Lee failed to properly consult with NZ First.
Asked in March whether the proposal had been progressed to Cabinet prematurely, Peters blamed staff: “When things happen sometimes, it’s often due to over-exuberance on the part of staff members, not to condemn them, and a certain stage in the process is overlooked.”
But Stuff understands the normal process was actually followed, that the cabinet paper was given to coalition partners, New Zealand First and ACT, way back on March 11.
A source said that Peters claiming he hadn’t been given the paper was “bullshit”.
In fact Stuff understands that Lee’s office prepared lines to clarify the timeline and prove that Peters’ office had received the paper but they were effectively shutdown because the coalition was more important.
This will not go down well with Peters. Even when he is completely wrong he is right. And in a battle between Lee and Peters I would expect Peters to win every time, no matter what the merits are.
And it reinforces concern that this Government would be an absolute cluster fuck. Clearly the fuckings are clustering right now.
And meantime the evil presence of Rupert Murdoch looms over New Zealand’s media landscape with reports that Paul Whittaker, chief executive of ultra right Sky News Australia which is doing its best to resemble Fox News, met with Christopher Luxon on the day that the media carnage unfolded.
We should all be very afraid.
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