OPINION

Willie Jackson is a motor mouth with a poor memory. Just a few weeks ago he was attacking Melissa Lee and calling her ‘useless’, ‘stupid’ and ‘incompetent’, and yesterday he was waxing lyrical about her skill set after Christopher Luxon sacked her as Broadcasting Minister. Make your mind up Willie!

After spending weeks calling former broadcasting Minister Melissa Lee “useless”, “stupid” and “incompetent”, Labour’s Willie Jackson is criticising the Prime Minister for booting her out of Cabinet.

Lee was removed as Media and Communications Minister on Wednesday and booted from Cabinet. Her role was given to Paul Goldsmith in a reshuffle Christopher Luxon said was because the portfolio had become more complex.

Penny Simmonds was also taken out of the Minister for Disability Issues role in the reshuffle.

The changes come after both Simmonds and Lee faced intense criticism over their response to issues in their respective portfolios.

Lee came under particular scrutiny over her response to extreme turmoil in the media industry. In fact, Jackson has repeatedly attacked her, calling her “stupid” and suggesting she “doesn’t know what she is doing”.

But on AM on Friday Jackson hit out at Luxon for demoting her, questioning where his heart was and saying Lee was “absolutely qualified” for her portfolio.

“One thing I have learnt in politics is that you don’t dance on someone’s grave and so I might have done that [criticised Lee] but a lot of things happen in politics. You had [David] Seymour calling Winston [Peters] the most untrustworthy person in the world and two weeks later they were in Cabinet together” Jackson told AM co-host Lloyd Burr.

“It’s a sad time for her and it’s a sad time for Penny so yes I was always very clear, but it was never anything personal,” he added.

He also hit out at National accusing them of not giving Lee adequate support in the role.

“What I will say is Melissa never got any support, she was thrown out there. I can recall the last day in the House and I really went for her and she got no support…I thought they would ask me to withdraw and apologise.

“So my sympathy goes out to her because she’s been in the game a long time, she was absolutely qualified for the position but had no support and no policy. Winston and the lot absolutely overruled her,” he said.

Newshub

So, what is it Willie?

Is she ‘useless’, ‘stupid’ and ‘incompetent’ or is she “absolutely qualified”?

You know what has happened here?

Labour and their lickspittles in the media tried very hard to “get” Melissa Lee, but they didn’t really want to cost her the job as Broadcasting Minister; they wanted her weakened and compliant so she would push their agenda to fund the media. They didn’t want her gone.

But they pushed her too hard and Christopher Luxon axed her. A big mistake by the opposition and media. This is why you are seeing reverse ferrets from people like Willie Jackson. They screwed up bigly.

Now they are up against Paul Goldsmith, and he is on the spectrum. He is immune to the petty bullying that people lacking intelligence – like Willie Jackson – resort to.

Christopher Luxon’s master stroke was to take Melissa Lee off the table, now they have Paul Goldsmith to deal with.

I’m quietly sniggering.

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As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news,...