The past week has shown to Labour what the opposition tactics will be this term. And what it has to overcome this if it wants to retain power.
The play book is quite simple. There will be the occasional splash of right wing ideology to keep the base happy. But the primary attack will be on the Government’s competence. On issue after issue, and the details will not matter, the Government’s ability to actually run the country will be questioned and challenged. And the greater the media response the more successful the challenge.
This is why the little things matter. Acting beyond reproach and being clear and principled in what you do are vital for Ministers. That is why Andrew Little and Phil Twyford are already standing out above the rest.
This week we have witnessed a great deal of attention placed on the actions of Clare Curran. My response was and still is a rather large dose of “Meh”. Sure her actions were ham fisted and rather stupid. But it was not a sackable offence. Even Simon Bridges agrees with this.
Of course she should have spoken to Radio New Zealand’s Chair of the Board or the Chief Executive before discussing matters with Hirshfeld. But some perspective is important. The numbers of centimetres of newspaper articles on this particular subject is way out of proportion.
Because it is not the only important news topic this week. Number one as far as I am concerned is the appalling news that the Health System requires up to $16 billion needed to fix ailing infrastructure. That is $3,200 for every man woman and child that we are going to have to find somehow. And there is an urgent need to pay our nurses properly.
National always does this. They claim to be smart with money. But through their penny pinching ways they grind public systems into the dust until the left gain power then bleat about tax rises needed to fund the repair required by their incompetence. But why did Curran’s problems occupy so much media space and the Health System issues so little?
The other major story this week was the Human Rights Review Tribunal’s finding that former Minister of Justice and Attorney General Chris Finlayson had egregiously breached Kim Dotcom’s rights. How could he have got it so wrong? And shouldn’t the media spend some time going into this most extraordinary of reversals?
I thought I would check on the number of articles in the Herald and on Radio New Zealand’s site concerning these three matters. The results of my quick google search are fascinating.
The Herald had 28 articles on Curren in the past seven days. Here they are:
Radio New Zealand had 17 articles on its website. I suspect they made it a virtue of publishing heavily on the story so that they could not be accused of bias. Here they are:
The Herald had as far as I can ascertain precisely one article on health budget problems in the past seven days.
Radio New Zealand had 13. It has performed sterling work on this issue and has led with story after story on the subject. They were:
And the Herald had exactly one article on Dotcom’s privacy breach so far this week.
Radio New Zealand had 2. Again here are google links to the articles:
What can be taken from all of this?
For the Herald little else has been happening politically apart from Clare Curran’s Astoria problems. Even the Health problems, affecting many people. have barely registered.
The Herald is clearly assisting National in creating a narrative that this Government is not fit to govern. A properly functioning democracy deserves better.
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