Yesterday was an interesting day.
Jacinda Ardern managed to ace an interview during the middle of an earthquake while at the same time poking a bit of fun at her partner Clark Gayford’s love of sheds. She again attracted International attention and reinforced what a cool head she has during an emergency. This 30 second clip live on TV will reinforce already stellar support for her in her role.
Meanwhile Todd Muller has completed his reshuffle. The overwhelming impression is that National’s front bench is very, very white.
Among the biggest losers, Simon Bridges who plunges 48 places and Paula Bennett who drops 11 places. Maori will notice their treatment. Paula is now ranking behind Chris Bishop. If current dire polling continues this could be the difference between being returned to Parliament and not being returned. And Alfred Ngaro dropped 9 places. Take that Pacific brothers and sisters.
National’s ethnic representation policy is in turmoil. They face the prospect of Jin Yang, Melissa Lee, Parmjeet Parmar, Kanwaljit Bakshi no longer being there. National’s fundraising will take a hit.
Meanwhile Todd’s first exposure on National TV was as you say not a good start. He kept tacking to his talking points. He wants to open up as quickly as possible and thinks the Government is not doing enough to support businesses. He seems to have missed the billions of dollars spent on the wage subsidy.
He came out with a few clangers like this one:
I think we would be spending money. I’m not going to quibble over whether it should be more or less.
Can someone tell me what was meant by this.
Jack Tame has the perfect response to this:
You are criticising the Government for a lack of detailed spending but you can’t even tell me if you would spend more or less. How is that for detail.
Muller replied by saying that he had a phenomenal team. And that National had a comprehensive economic plan that will resonate and people will relate to it and they will support risk taking and entrepreneurship. It is clear to see what platitudes National is going to use this election campaign.
As to policy the only details that we received were that National would reverse the Government’s ban on off sea oil drilling and not increase taxes. He also stood by National’s policy to increase the retirement age.
The strong impression I received was that Muller was not on top of details of National’s policy. This will be a problem if it continues.
He was asked about his relationship with Winston Peters. He has apparently not spoken to him since being elected leader. He was asked about his personal position on working with Winston. he replied by saying that it was up to caucus. He refused to rule it out. This represents national’s only hope.
The complete interview is worth a watch. Tame did an excellent job. The first thing they teach you in law school is to keep your questions short and look directly into the eyes of the person you are questioning. Tame did these exceptionally well.
Excuse me for saying this but Muller’s performance was Sheareresque in its quality.
Matthew Hooton must be deeply worried. All of his twitter posting of random numbers (now under lockdown) may have not improved things for National.
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress