Calamity Christopher

Luxon's yammering takes a hammering.

Had a dream
You and me and the war at the end times
And I believe
California succumbed to the fault line
We heaved relief
As scores of innocents died

Songwriter: Colin Meloy

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Today, I want to look at the ongoing fallout from Christopher Luxon’s disastrous performance in response to America and Israel’s war of aggression against Iran. Before that, a bit of housekeeping.

In case you’re unaware, Nick’s Kōrero is how I make my living. While I try to keep as much of my content open to everyone as possible, I also can’t afford to write for free. If you can afford my current special of a whole year of writing for $64, or the option to pay $6.40 monthly, please consider doing so. 🙂

To set the scene, here is a quick reminder of our Prime Minister's unintelligible response to a major act of war. A war that could escalate into a wider regional conflict as Israel seeks to expand its borders, or at least into many years of civil war, with the population split between religious loyalists and those who seek an American puppet to lead them.

Aunty Audrey runs cover.

In the Herald, Audrey Young, daughter of a National MP and sister of a National MP, seeks to reduce the damage to Luxon by comparing his performance to that of former Labour MP Clare Curran.

There you go, folks, Christopher Luxon wasn’t proving for the umpteenth time that he is out of his depth, lacks knowledge, and can’t answer simple questions; he was having a “Clare Curran moment”.

I take issue with that comparison. Firstly, Clare was not answering a simple question of great importance; she was responding to detailed questions of negligible public interest.

As you may recall, MP Melissa Lee reportedly told the National caucus that she was going to destroy Curran and set about badgering her over the use of her own email account until she got the response she wanted. Nothing of the kind was happening to Luxon; he was asked really obvious questions about an important matter that any leader should have been expected to answer without turning into a gibbering mess.

If Audrey wants to make a comparison, a better one would be with Todd Muller, who, though he was suffering through a breakdown, was more coherent than Luxon but had the gumption to see he could not cope with the job at hand and stepped aside.

Christopher Luxon. Monique Ford / The Post

Audrey writes of the moment when a reporter asked Luxon, given that he had said all actions were good, whether carpet bombing was acceptable.

“That is when Luxon’s brain and mouth became disconnected. He gabbled and resorted to one of his go-to phrases, usually reserved for the times he has sown confusion: ‘I don’t know how to be any clearer, guys.’”

Bizarrely, Audrey then praises him for his absurd statement, “I misspoke”

“To Luxon’s credit, he acknowledged earlier today that he ‘misspoke’ when he referred to ‘any action’. He didn’t mean ‘any’. But his discombobulation at his own press conference will be an enduring memory.”

Image: Newstalk ZB.

I posted, “Misspoke is a dumb Americanism that either means the person was talking a bunch of poorly informed garbage, or was lying. In Luxon’s case, it was the former, and his use of the word shows he is more American than Kiwi.”

Julie commented, “His inability to communicate and tell the truth shows very poor leadership. Let's get him out!”

To be fair, I quite enjoyed the following paragraph near the end of Audrey’s piece:

“In neither supporting nor opposing the United States’ and Israel’s bombing campaign against Iran, he has ended up annoying everyone – the left because it takes no cognisance of international law and the right because it resembles blancmange.”

A blancmange PM indeed, meanwhile, over at ZB, even on the bluest of platforms, there were doubts.

Heather du Plessis-Allan wrote:

“The problem is that, as always, Chris Luxon is trying to avoid taking a position, which ends the way it always does: he looks clumsy and uncertain. He makes mistakes - like saying he supports anything the US may do to prevent nuclear weapons, including carpet bombing - which he’s now had to walk back today.

And Luxon’s been here before, hasn’t he? Remember the three-minute interview with Mike Hosking where he wouldn’t take a position on whether he would have sacked Andrew Bayly?”

I had to laugh at the headlines last night reporting Andrew Bayly saying he would not stand again in Port Waikato but would seek a list position.

C’mon, the Nats will already be reserving the lifeboats for the likes of Nicola Willis, who can’t win a seat, and there aren’t likely to be many of them. It seems far-fetched to think they’d hand one to Bayly.

On the same ZB platform, Nick Mills wrote:

“Did you feel confident watching Christopher Luxon handle that moment? Did you feel like he was in control? Like, he understood the stakes? Like, he knew exactly where New Zealand sits in a conflict like this?

Or did you, like me, feel it was one of the weakest stand-ups you’ve seen from a Prime Minister in a long time? Because in times of international tension, tone matters. Clarity matters. Leadership under pressure matters.”

What did you think of watching it?

Turning to Stuff, there is an opinion piece by Phil Goff entitled “New Zealand’s silence on Iran war shows complicity.” He writes:

“The Government’s weak stance is further evidence that New Zealand has abandoned its independent foreign policy. We apparently no longer have the courage to speak freely in support of our values and interests as a sovereign nation.

Our first priority has become to avoid attracting the attention of the playground bully. Through silence, we are complicit in things that are happening we know to be wrong.”

I think that’s a great summation, and I’ve really admired the way Goff has conducted himself since his bizarre and cowardly removal by Winston Peters.

Luxon didn’t only take a hammering in the press over his yammering, he also came in for criticism in parliament yesterday.

“When Vladimir Putin invades his next country of choice, what moral authority will we have as a country to call on him to obey the international rules-based order?” Hipkins asked.

Speaking of the US strikes, Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson said, “Their disregard for international law, human rights, and the sanctity of human life is the greatest threat to peace on this planet.”

Green co-leader Marama Davidson. Photo: ROBERT KITCHIN / THE POST.

ACT leader David Seymour said of the debate, “I hate to say it, but the world is not waiting for New Zealand to cast its judgement.”

In other words, Seymour the Sycophant thinks only Israel and the US have opinions that matter, whereas this is about all independent nations standing together for international law.

We cower in our little corner of the world, too afraid to stand up to the bullies by declaring their actions illegal for fear of economic reprisals. Yet when we remained silent about the Gaza genocide, our reward was a 15% tariff.

Only if decent governments around the world stand together can we overcome Trump’s bullying. What is he going to do? Ban trade with all of us? As he threatened Spain for having the temerity to not allow their bases to be used for an illegal act of war?

Luxon’s cowardice isn’t only an embarrassment to a nation that was once proud to speak the truth, but it also enables Trump to pick off those who dare to oppose him, one by one, and it’s unclear which country he will target next.

Have a good Wednesday, folks.

Ngā mihi,
Nick.

To end today, here’s The Decemberists with “Calamity Song”.