One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dream
That all the people of the world got together on the same wavelength
And began helping one another
Now in this dream, universal love was the theme of the day
Peace and understanding and it happened this way
After such an eventful day yesterday I figured I’d watch the Newshub evening news, seemed like the right thing to do considering.
The day must’ve started out so hopefully for the Newshub team. An all-hands meeting surely meant some good news. Maybe the nightmare was going to go away? Perhaps another party had come to their aid, recognising the value of the work they do?
It was positive that the evening news hour would continue, but despite that upbeat announcement the reality remained that most of them would still lose their jobs. Not only that but with this deal done many were worse off than they had been that morning. This was the end, there would be no rescue for most of them.
The coverage of that story felt a little flat, which is perfectly understandable. I’m not saying they didn’t do a good job, they were as thoroughly professional as they have been throughout this process. But they seemed a bit less defiant, a bit more resigned to their fate.
That was until the political segment from Jenna Lynch on the PM’s trip and his department of memes and TikToks. Jenna seemed quite pissed off, and who could blame her?
It was quite a revelation. Well I thought it was, Christopher Luxon didn’t really know how many people there were in the team, he seemed totally blasé about it. But then he’s like that about most things.
Other than of course how he looks on Social Media where he refers to himself as... you might like to swallow your mouthful if you’re having a cuppa… the TikTok King.
Are you embarrassed yet NZ?
The sick and the hungry, had smiles on their faces
The tired and the homeless had family all around
Streets and the cities were all beautiful places
And the walls came tumblin' down
Jenna stated very pointedly that a team of seven, promoting Luxon and the wider National caucus, was more staff than most news organisations have in their dedicated political teams. Presumably she meant her own.
Think about that for a moment. There are more people devoted to selling a pretend image of Luxon, and his team, to the public than there are in some newsrooms where they’re trying to keep the buggers honest.
In the article the PM couldn’t tell Jenna how many people were working on his TikToks. “I couldn't tell you but it's not heaps,” Luxon said. But Newshub confirmed there are “seven full-time staff working on social media for National - partly paid for by the taxpayer.”
So that’s got to be a good feeling doesn’t it? If you’re one of the thousands of public servants being laid off by this government to save money. To find that as many as seven of you are losing your jobs so someone can mislead people about both the PM and the opposition, and all on the taxpayer’s dime.
Where are the Taxpayer’s Union when you need them? I’m kidding of course, they were busy comparing the sacrifice of those public sector workers to mere crumbs and pushing for more cuts. Because that’s the kind of guys they are.
Luxon said that he doesn't take the Social Media stuff too seriously. Despite his heavy use of it during the election campaign.
“I have to be honest, I question some of the things I do. But look, I'm out there, giving it a go. Some stuff will work, some stuff won't. But isn't it fantastic that I'm doing that?”
Is it Christopher? Is it fantastic that you’re doing that?
Of all the things you might be doing as the leader of our country you’re using a team of seven to do social media. Couldn’t you use that money for something else? Like, I don’t know, hiring an economist to help Nicola out - I reckon that would be a whole lot better than a bunch of TikToks. But perhaps I’m just old fashioned?
Lynch noted that “the very first thing Luxon did after being sworn in as Prime Minister was to spend 30 minutes filming social media content.” That sounds like something a teenager would do.
I appreciate Social Media is for everyone, not just for kids - but TikTok, and the way Luxon is pulling cutesy faces as a man in his 50s? Doesn’t that just creep you out a bit? This guy should be an absolute laughing stock - a middle aged dad of fully grown children in a business suit gurning like an influencer saying “look how fabulous I am”.
It’s a bit much, isn’t it?
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Nick's Kōrero to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.