OPINION
Had the star of the story been the Labour prime minister the real story behind the Tesla (non) story would have been immediately up in headlines on all media outlets.
Sadly that was not to be, as coverage of Christopher Luxon is strictly controlled and sanitised; whenever possible, negative, humiliating events are the stories of choice.
Following on the heels of a rather successful Stuff poll showing 62% of 30,000 contributors favoured Luxon’s depressing description of a New Zealand needing to get its mojo back, a really nasty piece of vitriol was needed
Newshub came up with the goods.
Samantha Hayes, looking positively gleeful, announced with her best smile that Luxon almost got a freebie ‘on the taxpayer dime’. A very classy introduction.
But wait, it gets better:
Then we came to the piece de resistance, Lloyd Burr, refugee from the now defunct Today FM, rescued by the press gallery, newly minted hit man, employed for Newshub’s gotcha moments.
Trembling with anticipation, with a wicked gleam in his eye, he delivered the sad story of a politician past redemption, who was lured to the dark side by offers of a free self drive Tesla, only saved and redeemed by his staff who implored him it would be a bad look to take up the offer.
On Luxon’s media rounds on Wednesday morning, he was able to tell ‘his truth’. Yes, he had considered the Tesla self drive, a perk of the job for the PM, ministers and the Leader of the Opposition. He had turned it down in his first year and was approached again at the end of 2022.
However two days later he turned it down again, of his own volition, he told Breakfast, AM and RNZ. The jury is out on whether his staff played a starring role (if any) or whether he made the decision himself.
However, the real story, which I would have expected to see in print shortly after the big build-up the night before, was a bit of let down for presenters Bridge, Burns-Frances and Hipkiss:
Luxon owns a (low emission) scooter for driving round town, running errands, picking up groceries etc.
He said the Tesla would have only got occasional use and therefore was not needed.
With the media criticising his party for their lackadaisical attitude towards reducing agricultural emissions, one would have thought they would have picked up on this piece of trivia, which showed another side to his promoted image of ‘the rich corporate guy from the top end of town’.
In his downtime, he favours a low-emission vehicle which is not the most salubrious form of transport. It reveals another side of the man who is obviously not concerned about what people think of him, beetling about on a scooter and at the same time doing his small bit for emissions reductions.
They are probably still in a huddle wondering whether to release it and show this completely unexpected facet of his personality
After all, we wouldn’t want the populace to start liking him, would we?