OPINION
My article Why Is National Not in the Lead got a strong response from our readers and a large number of comments. In reading the responses, two things hit me like the proverbial brick.
Here is the first, in a comment from Gazotaki:
Challenging the speaker is unheard of within our system and would lead to a breakdown of parliament possibly.
In other words, once Mallard had ruled that all sitting MPs should stay away from the Wellington protesters, they were effectively obliged to stay away. This applied to all MPs, including the opposition, but did not apply to Winston Peters, Rodney Hide, or Matt King, who had resigned from National by this time.
I had criticised Luxon for not going to talk to the protesters but had not realised that, strictly speaking, he was obliged not to do so. Yes, he could have gone against the speaker’s ruling, but he was still new to Parliament at that stage so he didn’t make any waves.
So I take back my criticism of him for not approaching the Wellington protesters.
The second item was this:
This article shows Luxon being interviewed for SKY News Australia. In the interview, he comes across very well. I was pleasantly surprised. And then it got me thinking; why do we never see interviews like that on New Zealand media?
The answer to that, of course, is one that we know only too well.
In fact, think back to whenever Luxon is actually interviewed here. On the TVNZ news, we may get a ten-second soundbite of him speaking, but rarely much more than that. On longer interviews, either radio or TV, he is interviewed by ‘journalists’ such as Suzy Ferguson or Jack Tame, who are both out-of-the-closet lefties, who interrupt him at every opportunity, so that the overall impression is that he has no clue about anything. Instead of letting him put his views forward, they create traps, go off on tangents, and generally do everything possible to disrupt his train of thought. Yet once he is allowed to speak and answer questions properly, he comes across as someone with plans and policies and genuine concerns about the direction of our country.
Why the big difference?
What journalist from the NZ state-funded media is going to bite the hand that feeds it?
I had known about the media bias – we all do – but even so I was shocked to realise how much they influence everything. Starve the leader of the opposition from coverage and he will be seen as having no vision. How many people have told me that Luxon has no policies? Yes, he does, but we never get to hear them. That is what happens when the government of the day funds the media. The opposition is drowned out and has no voice.
I have decided to roll back my disapproval of Luxon and try to find more interviews and news items to see what he is really like as a politician. True, that won’t be easy under the current Stasi media, but I’ll try my best. Can I suggest that perhaps some of you do the same?
This election is too important for us to dismiss the opposition as useless and weak, particularly as we are being herded that way by the government-funded left-wing media, so we have to try to keep an open mind. I thought I did have an open mind – until I saw the SKY News Australia interview. Then I realised how little of Luxon we actually see here. The tentacles of Jacindamania have a long reach.