We finally had the first leaders’ debate on Tuesday night and it was a doozy. It was very telling in many ways, but the over-riding impression was that it was a battle of slogans against substance.
Jacinda Ardern came to the battle ill-prepared and schooled up with a kitbag of slogans and a strategy of presenting a small target. It is, of course, easy to present a small target when your list of achievements in government can be written on the back of a postage stamp…if you could, in fact, find a postage stamp.
The sloganeering, however, failed. It failed because of the sloppy diction of the Prime Minister, who simply finds herself unable to enunciate ‘t’ sounds. That was why everyone was confused when she started blathering on about ‘Double Judy’.
‘Double Judy’? People screamed at their television sets. ‘What the hell does that even mean?’
She was actually saying “Double Duty” and, bizarrely, the only example she used to elucidate the idea is that when Dunedin Hospital is built sometime in the future, they will use some new apprentices that will have been trained locally.
Yes, she really said that. It’s bull dung of course, as is any promise that ‘shovel ready’ projects are going to create hundreds, if not thousands of jobs.
And if you are going to choose a slogan it pays not to pick one that is a brand of kitty litter that supposedly kills the odours of urine and faeces. Which is ironic as Ardern claiming to want to “keep moving” is really taking the piss.
This is the problem with slogans, they are only as deep as the material used to print them onto bumper stickers.
Ardern loves slogans. It is a charge I have levelled at her for years, ever since I met her in person, in Morrinsville, in 2008. All she has is slogans and sloganeering.
When it comes to delivery, she and her government have been found wanting. None of the big slogan items from the last election have ever come close to being delivered.
They missed their target for Kiwibuild by failing to build 15,400 houses out of a target of 16,000. They missed their target for building light rail to Mt Roskill, with not even a single millimetre of track being laid out of 12km. They missed their child poverty targets and in actual fact have made them worse. They missed their target on the electric vehicle uptake in the government fleet by so far that it looks like they put their shots on neighbouring targets.
No major policy platform or slogan from the last election has been delivered and so presenting a small target is easy, but also a massive danger for Jacinda Ardern.
Now they’ve introduced a new slogan, which is diminished firstly by the fact that no one even knows what it means and, secondly, because the Prime Minister can’t even pronounce it.
On the other side of the debate was a no nonsense, practical Judith Collins who spoke plainly and directly. She at least knew which camera to speak to, which again showed her experience over Ardern’s ineptness. It took John Campbell in the final speech of the night to actually direct Ardern to the correct camera.
Collins didn’t pull her punches and even landed her soft jabs flush on the unguarded face of Jacinda Ardern. Every time she spoke it hurt Ardern.
She made Ardern look like the very average politician she is.
Ardern is used to enjoying protection. The reason Ardern goes on about bringing kindness and fairness into politics is because she can’t handle the rough and tumble. She knows she will crack, those around her know she will crack, so no one is allowed to be mean.
That’s why Trevor Mallard runs interference in parliament, that’s why various men jump on people who ruffle the immature feathers of a woman who can’t handle the hard stuff or more importantly the truth. The men around her protect her. She is their bread and butter.
The debate finally exposed the truth about Jacinda Ardern and her abilities. She was found wanting and she knows it.
Ardern now has a big problem. She can do more of the same and get slaughtered, or go toe to toe with Collins, destroy her kindness schtick, AND get slaughtered. She knows it, Judith Collins knows it and now the general public know it.
Playing the small target will fail, as it lets Collins hammer her on the extensive failing of her government.
This will all now prey on Ardern’s mindset, and her natural disposition towards fretting and panic will start to take over.
That debate showed Ardern she’s got a fight on her hands with an opponent who can not only box, but is adept at grappling and MMA and is handy with a knife as well.
You could see it in the body language during the show. Ardern knew she was broken from the very first round. It hurt, and sadly she failed to lift her game.
The election is now very much game on.
The last comment I will make is on the insistence from Ardern that she has a plan. There is scant evidence that this is so. Simply saying you have a plan does not mean you actually have a plan. Ardern fails to plan, and in doing that she is planning to fail.
If Judith Collins really wants to pay out the hurt on Jacinda Ardern she simply has to demand to know what the plan is that Ardern says she has.
So far she’s got nothing but slogans and that ain’t a plan.
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