Ryan Bridge on the AM show asked the prime minister several questions she was uncomfortable answering. When Ardern is under pressure she lapses into poor diction, which she did, and she adopts a facial expression indicating she smells a dead rat in the room.
After discussing the Chinese virus, where Ardern hid behind the “I never discuss intelligence” curtain, the next question which piqued my interest was Bridge asking Ardern how she was going to pay for the billions of borrowed money in the 2020 budget.
Bridge said Cameron Bagrie had been on the show earlier that morning and suggested the huge debt would be paid for by teenagers and those now at school. Bridge intended to ask the prime minister if she would hike up taxes now instead of loading repayments on the next generation of tax payers.
Bridge’s slip of the tongue revealed two things: first the prime minister had already been apprised of the question; and second she did not actually listen to his question. Instead of hearing what Bridge said and answering accordingly, Ardern reverted to her memorised playbook of questions and answers and replied to the question that she expected to hear.
Bridge: “Will there be an appetite for tax cuts going forward, do you think, amongst voters, not that you are going to do it, I know you won’t make any announcement today, but do you think there would be an appetite for something like that amongst voters given the challenges we are facing?”
Ardern: Ooh umm I think probably that would feel to me like an unlikely position for New Zealanders, I mean I can’t speak on their behalf, that’s somethink that no doubt someone will ask umm in the future. Umm but what I do know is that the priority right now has to be aah helping keep those small businesses on their feet, helping keep people employed and getting them into employment and that’s what our response and our plan has all bin about, that immediate response and recovery and then the longer term rebuild.”
Bridge: “Did I say tax cuts? I meant tax hikes!”
If Ardern had been listening to Bridge, his slip of the tongue gave her the opportunity to provide the most logical and correct answer which is of course: tax payers want tax cuts!
But Ardern wasn’t listening. Instead, she was thinking about the memorised question and answer from her rehearsed playbook and unthinkingly trotted out the memorised answer.
It made me wonder: who is writing Ardern’s playbook. Who do you think is the person beyond Ardern’s façade of power? Is it Helen Clark or Grant Robertson or someone else? Who stands to benefit?
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