The Show Must Go On

Lights, Cameras, and No ACT or Luxon.

Empty spaces, what are we living for?
Abandoned places, I guess we know the score, on and on
Does anybody know what we are looking for?
Another hero, another mindless crime
Behind the curtain, in the pantomime
Hold the line
Does anybody want to take it anymore?

The show must go on

Songwriters: Brian May / Freddie Mercury / John Deacon / Roger Taylor

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We came home yesterday. Our dogs were ecstatic; even the teenagers showed an interest in our arrival. It was good to spend time in my old hometown, especially to see my mate Keith.

Here are a few photos of us at Kuirau Park, much beloved by my generation for the Toot ‘n’ Whistle train, the Swan Cars, and the Tank that always smelled like piss. Keith worked at the Aquarium in the park when we were at High School. All of those attractions are long gone though the gardens are as attractive as ever.

I recalled walking through the park in the middle of the night. Being scared of homeless people who slept in the bamboo surrounding the steaming thermal pools. Keith recalled people dying in the waters. Either from the psych ward up the hill at the hospital or drunks seeking warm relief on a cold Rotorua night and falling asleep.

You’d want to be careful, he told us, how quickly you pulled the body out, lest you pull apart the well-cooked corpse. Fi and I laughed nervously and thought of Auckland.

Over the last few days, I haven’t read much news, but I noticed this headline:

Normally, I wouldn’t bother reading Shayne Currie's “Premium Content.” If you’re not familiar with Shayne, he has held “executive and senior editorial roles at NZME, including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor.”

He writes a “Media Insider” column in which he mostly promotes NZME and slams public broadcasting. It is essentially an infomercial and a gossip column from a company rep who isn’t even pretending to be neutral.

I’m not saying Shayne should be first in line when the revolution comes, somewhere between position 50 and 100, I would’ve thought, but in terms of keeping a watchful eye on the media, it’s a bit like leaving Goebbels in charge of the chicken coop.

In his column, Currie discusses a series of boycotts currently taking place, namely:

Te Pāti Māori won’t talk to the Herald

This is on account of that paper carrying a full, front-page advertisement from Hobson’s Pledge. Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi is quoted as saying the Herald had been “bought off by a well-resourced anti-Māori collective”. Which seems pretty accurate to me.

“We will not tolerate the spread of anti-Māori propaganda in Aotearoa. The front-page advertisement was full of deceitful misinformation designed to sow resentment of our people,” said Waititi.

ACT won’t talk to Morning Report

“ACT leader David Seymour says he and his MPs have refused to appear on the show for four years because of several issues.” Basically, ACT says that RNZ are all meanies.

"Actually, I don’t need them in my life," Act leader David Seymour said of Morning Report. Photo / Ben Dickens

Considering the highly combustible nature of what comes out of his mouth, Seymour is surprisingly thin-skinned. He claimed that RNZ producers were “unbelievably rude” to him “off air,” yet curiously gave no examples. I say curious because if you ever encounter a right-wing troll, the first thing they ask for is examples.

Seymour complained of “a deep selectiveness on topics.” Some might find it disturbing that the man who might become our next deputy PM, if Winston decides to vacate the chair, cannot understand that journalists want to ask about things going badly, not simply praise the things that are going so well—radio silence is unprofessional.

A tumbleweed. Photo: https://www.dangerrangerbear.com/the-tumbleweed/

On top of that, Seymour hasn’t liked having his presence as the member for Epson mocked. I appreciate the days when ACT only made it into parliament through being gifted that seat some time back, but that just makes Seymour’s ongoing grudge all the more pathetic.

Christopher Luxon won’t talk to Jack Tame

Currie mentions that Prime Ministers Key and English each appeared on our premier, and now only, political current affairs show four times a year. Even with Covid going on, Jacinda managed twice a year. But our current PM has not made himself available for an interview even once since being elected almost a year ago.

I imagine he was otherwise occupied each of the times he was invited. Perhaps he was washing his hair that day? Or maybe shaking the hand of some foreign dignitary who was mystified about why he was there?

“It’s now more than a year since Christopher Luxon was last on the show. He’s actually never been interviewed on Q+A in his capacity as Prime Minister. We’ve requested him many times. We’ve asked his team what dates would suit. We’ve tried to work in with what is obviously and understandably a busy schedule, but so far he hasn’t appeared,” said Tame, adding, “We think there’s democratic value in putting questions to politicians of all stripes and we hope the Prime Minister agrees to be interviewed soon.”

By an incredible coincidence, after his ongoing non-appearance being raised, Luxon has indicated that he’ll grace the nation with his presence.

“I’m available to media every day [and through] many different forms of media as well, but, no, looking forward to getting on Q+A sometime before the end of the year.” Which I find comforting, in that that comment carried much the same odour as the thermal activity in my hometown.

Tova O’Brien at Stuff has also complained about the severely limited availability of the nation’s leader. Luxon recently put her straight on his media strategy:

“We weigh it all up, Tova, and we look at who’s talking to who and how we get to as many people as we possibly can. That’s why I had a good hour on talkback last Friday on commercial radio [with Newstalk ZB’s Kerre Woodham]. That’s why we’re talking to people through social media channels. We try and take as many requests and be available to the media as we possibly can.”

So there you go, folks. Don’t worry about the fact that the PM has been avoiding TVNZ and Stuff, he’s always got time for the folks at ZB. I assume you’re happy with Kerre Woodham asking the tough questions on your behalf?

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon with Newstalk ZB host Kerre Woodham in July. He reappeared on her show last week. Photo / Jason Dorday

Aren’t they all just different flavours?

The problem is that Newstalk ZB isn’t just the right-wing equivalent of RNZ or TVNZ. The latter two, the shows that ACT and Luxon don’t want to appear on, have actual journalists with hard questions that the public deserves to have answered.

They fulfil an important role in our society. ZB isn’t just journalism from people with right-wing views; it’s gutter-level tabloid stuff with often scant regard for the truth. It has more in common with Plunket’s Platform or the defunct Reality Rain-check Radio than our state broadcasters.

Where Jack Tame or Morning Report will ask tough questions of either Labour or National leaders, Mike Hosking and Kerre Woodham will only criticise the left, no matter what they do, and blow smoke up the backsides of people like Luxon and Key, talking with them as if they were old mates against the socialists. There is a difference.

For example, consider this from Russell Brown, someone who is hugely qualified to be talking about the state of the media:

Why should we care if the PM won’t talk to the media?

I feel more strongly about Luxon’s decision to be less available and less accountable to the public than ACT’s. The latter party makes no pretence whatsoever of representing the whole population; they are about winning as much as possible, with no time for losers. You know, those who clean their offices, make their coffees, or teach their kids.

Neoliberalism does not envision looking after the needs of all; it’s unashamedly Me, Me, Me—with no interest in you, and it doesn’t pretend otherwise. On the other hand, National claims to be there for everyone, although it’s becoming pretty clear that this is especially untrue for the current crop.

Is it acceptable for a mainstream party, our country's governing party, to take such an invisible stance?

Image: Q&A and BeFunky.

Luxon’s attitude is: “I’m not interested in reaching a wider audience. I just want to keep the 51% I need on side to support me, and that’s a lot easier with TikToks than getting asked questions by Jack Tame.”

If it was you then you might too. “So you’re saying I can go on TVNZ or RNZ, where they will ask me all sorts of awkward questions on things that I’d really rather not talk about, or alternatively, I can do a bit of clowning around for the camera on social media? What I would say to you is… I love an easy question”.

But here is why it matters… If this bloke isn’t even interested in talking to us, then what are the odds that our interests keep him awake at night?

I’d say slim to the best part of bugger all. Nix. Nada. Sweet FA. Not to put too fine a point on it, but he doesn’t care about us. We’re not of value to him.

What would you ask? Not necessarily as Jack Tame to the PM, but say as a constituent to your local coalition MP? Perhaps it might be something like…

How on earth is this freeze on spending in Health consistent with your pre-election claims that you wouldn’t impact front-line services?

Or, hang on a minute, mate, I voted for tax cuts; I don’t want this Treaty Principles Bill; it’s a bunch of small-minded racist crap, and as my MP, I don’t want you supporting it at first reading. And don’t give me any ‘coalition agreement’ garbage - this is a matter of principles, and if you support this, you don’t share the same ones as me.

Or, cherry-picking one tiny part of the country where you’ve increased police on the beat, coincidentally where the TV companies are based, and saying that crime has dropped when it is actually going up everywhere else - it’s not on, is it? You guys were supposed to be cracking down on crime, remember? We were all going to get murdered in our homes if Labour were re-elected. Well, despite your positive spin on things, there seem to be an awful lot of murders lately. And by an awful lot, I mean more than there were previously, not less.

Ah well, perhaps people won’t notice the crime with less coverage of it now that the opposition isn’t turning up for a bit of grief tapping to lay flowers where the latest victim was killed and say how different things will be when they’re in charge.

A year later, and sadly, they’re not. Perhaps that’s why Luxon won’t go on any of these programmes, with people who ask actual questions?

How is this brave new world of media supposed to work? Do we sit back and hope that in one of these TikToks, where Amanda Luxon throws a bucket of water over her husband, she accidentally yells out, “Why is Crime so bad, Christopher? Answer me that, and dance monkey dance”?

Or do we wait for Kerre Woodham to re-invent herself as something other than a sycophant? She’s done it before; believe it or not, there was once a time when she was vaguely worth listening to.

Long gone, alas, like the Toot ‘n’ Whistle from Kuirau Park. In the meantime, as they say, the show must go on.

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I’ve left this newsletter open to all because today is a very important day to me, more so than birthdays or any other day. Today I am three years alcohol-free and am grateful every day not to be carrying that weight and to be the person I am, not crippled and poisoned by that bloody awful addiction.

Even though it doesn’t pay the bills, I like sharing my writing publicly. From tomorrow, it’ll be back behind the paywall, but today, I hope you found it worthwhile. If you’d like to keep on reading more from me, please consider a subscription, which costs less than $2 per week but means that I get to do this.

Not everyone gets a second chance, with their partner still unbelievably remaining by their side, and finds something they love doing. I am a very lucky man indeed.

Have a good one, all you lovely people. 🙂

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