The Nation’s Minor Party Leaders Debate

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
31
3

the-nation-tv3
The 7 leaders of the Minor Parties all clashed this morning on The Nation. Great insight into the politicians and their presence. Here were my thoughts.

LAST:
Jamie Whyte – Just so far out of his depth. It’s embarrassing watching him, it really is. He sounds as wet as he is pompous. Claims we don’t live in a free market and need to throw more criminals in prison. Comes last because he’s just so weak as a candidate.

6th
Peter Dunne – Every time Dunne talks about tax, a little voter dies. As politically irrelevant as his bow tie. Might actually get knocked out of his seat by National this year.

5th
Colin Craig – After this abysmal performance, Colin will now be suing the other 6 Party Leaders for being far better than his pale rabbit in the moonbeams performance. He sounds like a cough needing a throat. After bitching about not being allowed to play in the big kids sandpit did sweet FA to justify his inclusion. Thankfully he attacked NZ First enough to just pull enough of Winston’s religious fringe to the Conservatives to bring both of them under 5%.

4th
Flavel – Tired and defeatist. He knows it’s over.

3rd
Winston – He only comes 3rd by default. He was slow moving and hadn’t seemed to have woken up yet. Pointed out he could work with the Greens which was important. Still not convinced he’ll get over 5%.

2nd
Metiria – It’s a bit of a joke that she has to swim around in the shallow pool with the tiny fish when the Greens are now a major party in their own right. Met was dignified and polished, and reminded Labour that in any changed Government it must be a Green Cabinet. This is mana from heaven for Cunliffe who can’t seriously trust the ABCs after all their antics of late. Cunliffe can trust the Greens far more than some in his own Caucus.

1st
Hone – Hone won by such a vast margin it will genuinely surprise viewers. The mainstream media hate campaign against Hone backfires when he has his own platform minus their biased filter, his dignified answers and presence was statesmen like and he discussed policy, jobs and made the elimination of child poverty with 5 years a priority. Not even Tim Watkin could make Hone look bad today.

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Most poignant moment was when Lisa Owen pressed Hone on David Cunliffe not wanting anything to do with Internet MANA. Hone replied that if Cunliffe looked at how poverty and inequality has damaged NZ under National and couldn’t find a way to end that with a phone call to Hone then it was Cunliffe who needed to ask himself some hard questions, not Hone.

While much of the mainstream media tried to claim Internet MANA were a Nazi Party this week, Hone’s calm, righteous advocacy for those in poverty today will show up that vile right wing spin for the sad joke it is.

The same blowback perception will occur when Cunliffe goes up against Key as the under dog in the debates. Cunliffe has been the target of a vicious character assassination by the corporate media but when Cunliffe has his own platform he can easily impress voters and show that narrative up.

The election is going to be far closer than the mainstream media have been claiming for the last 3 years.

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31 COMMENTS

  1. Guess Craig didn’t like it when Metiria put him in his place, with her hand. That was more than he deserved, ‘shut up /Craig would have be my response,

  2. I agree almost entirely with your assessment, Martyn.

    There seemed to be a warmth and a bond between Hone, Metiria and Winston, and I would place all three as equal for first.

    I can see Hone as a future Prime Minister

    • I can also see Hone as a future Prime Minister, and I can NOT see any of the “ABC” faction in the Labour caucus as being PM material, and the sooner they are all shown the door the better, IMO.

  3. It was an interesting look at the leaders…

    My own ‘take’;

    Colin Craig – Definitely looked out of his depth.

    Jamie Whyte – was actually weirder than Colin Craig. His assertion that wealth made no difference to legal representation when charged with the same crime as a poor brown fella, was jaw-droppingly asinine. This man is a “doctor of philosophy”?!?! He should try reality for a change.

    Peters – held his own. Nice to see him pulling back from dissing the Greens. That style won’t get him anywhere except remaining in Opposition.

    Flavell – poor guy. He couldn’t decide if his Maori Party was “sitting at the table” with National or an independent party. He looked tragic.

    Metiria – She tried damned hard. Her best moment was her “hand up” to Whyte to STFU. Classic “little-boy-go-to-your-room” stuff.

    Hone – outstanding. His potential is greater than anyone has heretofore expected. No wonder the Right, Labour, and conservative media are panicking and attacking him. Hone is fast becoming the ‘Jim Anderton of the 21st century’.

    Peter Dunne – his irrelevancy grows every day. Nice tie.

    Winner of the Day? The viewer. We could actually hear what was being debated. Probably due to Steven Joyce’s absence.

    • Agree with your final statement Frank. As a further observation though, it appears Dunne has attended the same media training sessions as the National cabinet. Make outrageous and insulting remarks then repeat them ad infinitum for as long and as loudly as possible.

    • “Jamie Whyte – was actually weirder than Colin Craig.”
      I read that five minutes ago and I’m still laughing :0

  4. I have no problem with Hone. My problem is with the guy funding him and the rabble attracted along the way.

        • I dare you to go to the Internet party website and look at that online policy discussions going on there – there’s more eruditery* happening there than anywhere else in this election.

          *Yes, I’m aware that’s not a real word…

    • Ben

      That “rabble” you sneer at, is comprised of your fellow citizens; who have a democratic right to vote for the representatives they choose. My problem is that you appear to think that your problem in accepting that is my problem.

  5. A criticism of Hone. He didn’t answer the question about Labour having a vision. And he took a long time to answer the question.

    The person I thought who did best 1st = Metiria and Peters.

    Plus Lisa Owen. She is very good.

    • Metiria and Hone were brilliant, and Winston was great. The rest were a waste of space.

      Can’t agree with you that Lisa Owen is very good… apart from failing to control people constantly talking over each other, she was unnecessarily rude to Colin Craig. (FWIW I have no time for his politics). Yes, we all knew that he had got into the debate through the courts because TV3 didn’t want him there, but Lisa didn’t have to remind everyone of that by sniping at CC every time she asked him a question. It was unprofessional and reflected badly on her.

  6. Seeing Hone at the dawn service at Waitangi this year left me with an abiding memory of his dignity, humour and statesman-like demeanour, so, yes, I’m with Miss Modern Labour in suggesting he could be a future PM.

  7. Hone Harawira and Metiria Turei were the stars today. A government with these two in, would be an asset to NZ.

    I hope David Cunliffe watched their credible performances this morning.

    Hone and Metiria are representatives of socialism at its best 🙂

    With perhaps the exception of Winston Peters, the rest simply paled into lack lustre insignificance!

  8. For what it is worth, here is my opinion of today’s Minor Party Leaders and the TV3 Debate:

    Fully agree with Martyn’s assessment of Hone Harawira as the star speaker. The man was so impressive I realised I had somehow fallen hook, line and sinker for the mainstream media’s negative portrayal of the man. Loved his take on the child poverty issue. Looking forward to seeing much more of him.

    Te Ururoa Flavell came across as a genuinely nice guy and worthwhile politician. I heard him on Radio Live this week and while he may not be as polished as Hone I liked him a lot. I think his party should join forces with Internet/Mana.

    I have always liked Winston Peters but I do get a bit sick of his ego rearing it’s ugly head on a very regular basis. You could tell he resented the thought that Colin Craig might be more popular than him in his very own electorate. Having said that, I want Winston to stop smoking and drinking in order to hopefully lengthen his political career by decades. He’s the man we need who puts Kiwis and New Zealand first and serves to keep other politicians honest.

    Everyone loves to hate the white-bread and boring façade Colin Craig shows the public. Perhaps it is his Christianity that makes people dislike him or is it that they just lump him into the “evil rich” category? Whatever, I personally quite like Colin Craig and his clean-living, straightforward approach to both business and politics. Then again, I never was a woman who preferred bad boys. I disagree that he performed badly on the TV3 show today. To me, he handled himself and the insults from both Lisa (verbally) and Metiria (impolite hand up to cut him off as if he was of no consequence whatsoever) very well indeed. He was clearly the underdog but comported himself with dignity and class IMHO.

    Metiria Turei is to me OK but no truly sparkling special star. I like the Greens mostly but didn’t like their voting down some legislation or other several years ago that would have helped to protect a certain age group of children from sexual exploitation. I guess I just think of the Greens as a bunch of old free-lovin’ hippies at heart although I am very impressed with the work of Dunedin’s Shane Gallagher who is a Green Party member. I can see Metiria as a solid political support person but not a great leader herself.

    Jamie White. Well, I just get bad-tempered whenever I hear someone say they want to give even more tax cuts to the rich. Reducing company tax even further is not my favourite idea. Hate Mr White’s blathering about theory rather than quoting actual facts and figures and am still really, really turned off in the first place by the man’s prior justification of the taboo sexual practise of incest. Why would anyone, with all the other people in the world to have sex with, think sex with one’s own family is OK? Where is his head at? Don’t tell me please! I just don’t want to know.

    Peter Dunne, how I hate both you and all the damage you have caused to the people of this country because of your pathetic legal highs carry on. When all those people DON’T vote for you and you have to pack up and leave Parliament, I shall rejoice that the common sense of the common people has triumphed. Why don’t you just leave now and take all of your silly bow ties with you? BTW Mr Dunne, there are plenty of ways to fund better policies than National have come up with, like taxing the rich for one.

    Can’t wait for the Major Party Debate.

  9. It was well run.

    Metiria and Hone shone, Winston held his own.

    Craig got in one or two points but got hurt more often.

    Whyte got caned. Dunne was irrelevant- no surprises.

    Flavell came across as humble but not foolish, better than I expected, but not very leadery.

    It would’ve been nice to see Laila there – more relevant than Dunne.

  11. I cannot find this on TVNZ On Demand nor YouTube.

    For those of us without TV is there anywhere to watch these debates online??

  13. My thoughts were – why couldn’t they just give us an hour of debate and give people more time to answer/ debate and did we really need analysis when there was such limitations on time? However better than nothing and definately better than Hoskings!

  14. Wait…Peter Dunne was in the debate? Um its hectic in my house at that time of the morning, the kids probably drowned him out.

    Regardless this sums up my take on the debate – Hone I had no idea. InternetMana – Im ready.

  15. Generally agree with what others have said about the candidates’ performances. Although I have to admit that Hone is not a personal favourite of mine, I was impressed with his professionalism and clear mindedness on the programme and now have a lot more respect for the man than I did before. I thought Peter Dunne sounded more like an opposition member than a government member. I was interested in a couple of his ideas for the housing crisis – home ownership accounts (which operated in the 1980s) and capitalizing working for families benefits. Whyte was basically an idiot and even National must have mixed feelings about an alliance with such a deadhead. Flavell sounded like a National Party backbencher.

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