With Eyes Closed
The PM misses Q&A but attends breakfast.
Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all you see
It’s getting hard to be someone, but it all works out
It doesn’t matter much to me
Songwriters: Paul McCartney / John Lennon
Clucking Luxon.
Yesterday was the last episode of Q&A for the year, and guess who didn’t turn up?
Mr C Luxon, Prime Minister, decided that we really didn’t need to hear from him, and I imagine quite a few of you agreed, but shouldn’t we see the leader of our country asked difficult questions at least once a year?
Phil identified the problem: “To go on TV and answer prime minister-type questions, wouldn’t you have to be an actual prime minister?”
Heather used one of the PM’s favourite phrases to imitate him, “What I would say to you is...cluck, cluck!”
Winston got into the spirit of things, “Judith Collins says, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…”
Gerry Brownlee tries his best to restrict serious questioning of the PM in Parliament, and most of our media give Luxon an easy ride, as if he has just woken from election night and has no idea what’s going on.
On this occasion, it wasn’t clear whether Luxon’s failure to show, despite having committed earlier in the year to appearing and having an open invitation, was general cowardice or more specific skin-saving.
Did he not want to appear because Jack Tame always made him look as if he didn’t know what he was talking about, or was it that he might have to speak to the IPCA report into McSkimming, which indicated “no evidence of collusion between officers”? Even though Judith Collins, in particular, had already convicted all involved, assembled the gallows and was busy tying the noose.
Either way, he had something more important to do, as you can see here in one of the events Luxon attended over the weekend. If you’re unsure who our Prime Minister is, he’s the one on the left. If you get to Simeon Brown, you’ve gone too far.
Buy a subscription to Nick’s Kōrero for yourself or someone else this Christmas. It’s $80 per year, $8 per month, or a bit less than $2 per week, and I’ll see you beyond the paywall.
