I must confess myself slightly perplexed at the “outrage” that the Government put $250,000 into working out how to do comms for its Covid-19 strategy. I mean, think about what was involved at every step – what New Zealanders were being asked to do.
You’re asking 5 million people to lockdown, then social distance/mask up/scan/vaccinate .. all new behaviors at a national level and requiring outreach to quite a range of communities across the country. It’s not just communicating what to do but why it’s necessary.
And hopefully actually encouraging the vast majority of New Zealanders, regardless of political preference, to buy into that response and actively help carry it out.
I’m sure somebody out there is muttering about how “could have just stuck Jacinda in front of a camera to say any old thing and people’d have bought it” – but that’s simply not the case.
I’m also not sure how far people think $250,000 really goes as far as political communication and education is concerned.
The referendums staged last year cost more than ten times that in terms of comms – and that was for something as simple as two ticks in boxes on one day.
The National Party alone spent more than $250k on just its party facebook advertising for the last Election (i.e. not including individual candidates buying ads on the platform, or anything else, anywhere else).
The inference opponents of the Government seem to have drawn on this issue is that spending money is held to be necessary in order to secure some form of unfair advantage in communication – because, of course, it’s “unfair” if we co-ordinate a successful public health strategy…
They – still – feel ‘crowded out’ by the Government’s ability to put out crisis messaging during a crisis which, quelle horror, actually gets listened to and acted upon by a reasonable swathe of the population (even people who don’t then go on to vote for said govt in election).
Seymour has a slightly different tac on it, of course – that being the general opposition to taxpayer expenditure , but also loudly proclaiming that this ‘proves’ that the Government’s Covid-19 response hasn’t been based on science but rather on sentiment.
Now that’s doubly curious – because first and foremost, interviews with leading scientists in the relevant fields in the Herald today had said scientists supporting using public money to craft and hone a decent public communication effort.
It’s literally listening to science.
Yet second, Seymour has set up an implicit duality between “following the science” and “listening to New Zealanders”. He is opposed, in a democracy, to the democratic will of the people guiding Governance. I’m not sure how else to put it.
Now, we’re going to hear a LOT more of that kind of thing going forward, for the simple expedient that various portions of our right-wing commentariat have realized that what THEY want to do (“learn to live with it”, “open the border”, “roll the Government”, “kill an orca”, etc.) …
… is pretty heavily unpopular with much of the electorate and won’t fly democratically. Most of it won’t fly scientifically, either; meaning that a comms strategy which listens to the electorate and is scientifically valid MUST be attacked as somehow neither of these things.
Instead, we get what’s tantamount to declamations of the World’s Most Cost-Efficient Brainwashing Campaign. A mere $250,000 to hoodwink (indeed, to congeal) the Team of Five Million – twenty cents per person in and of this fair land to establish the JacindaRaj.
Although what REALLY sticks in their collective craw is the deep and abiding knowledge that even were they to spend ten times that amount themselves, they’d be unable to beat the Government and its tangible track-record of both communicative and Covid-related success.
Hence – what we have here is an attempt to generate well more than a quarter million dollars in outrage … for free – fact-free and otherwise.
I agree – the Natz, Act and the right wing media and bloggers and the moaning old men are quietly envious of the success of Jacinda in managing the Covid pandemic and making Aotearoa the safest and most-free country in the world. I’m amazed at the hate expressed by the mainly old men talk-back listeners (encouraged by the hosts) against Jacinda herself. An example is the National party rally last friday where all the radio stations, TV shows and newspaper provided all that free pro-tory promotion and the old boomers got to express their rhetoric. The right wing just go from issue to issue and in between deal with internal dissention but have no positive outlook.. $250k still seems to be inadequate going by the number of oldies not getting vaccinations.
Now, now we can’t be having right wingers being all positive now, it doesn’t fit their brief. Just read John’s posts as examples.
Well said Curwen. The thing that amazes me, even with this drivel from ACT & National, they still manage to poll so highly. Right wing voters should be up-in-arms protesting about their lack of credible representation; I can only assume their political bias is making them blind to what is actually happening in the oppostion benches.
Frighteningly true.
Must be the only four people that think the government is doing a good job going forward. There seems to be no plan to get workers into the country and I see now a law firm is taking action against the immegration dept in their dealings with those trying to get here to reconnect with families. Like many thinks with this government they started well and made lots of the right noises but feel down in completing the deal wether it is housing, transport , mental health , health in general .
“The covid response was a panic response, and for what its worth, many here are still in panic mode.”
So you will line up first to jab yourself with covid and prove to us all that it’s no worse than the ahem, flu Sabrina?
All I can say is thank christ you aren’t in charge or there would be a lot more dead.
It’s nowhere near as expensive as the Ministry of Primary Industries rebrand, which is basically changing the background color and over $900,000.
“we are your single source of truth. Resistance is futile”
As much as I have always disliked Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand politics, because I saw some of these negative things coming a Mike off, despite the fact that I have mostly been a Labour voter and definitely was in support of Helen Clark during her nine years in power, I do feel I should praise Jacinda Ardern and HER team for their handling of the coronavirus pandemic. It does certainly seem that, had National been in power, we would have reopened our borders with Australia too early, and goodness knows who else National would have let in prematurely.
Furthermore, despite the flak that our current PM has been shouldering due to being the “President of the Youth Socialist Movement” or something similar to this title in her younger years, she does actually carry the courage of her convictions. Here is a woman who has used her own beliefs, whatever they may be, to guide her decision on every single conscience vote she’s made while she’s been in Parliament. And here is a woman who sat down with Winston Peters on one particular occasion in the lead up to the 2020 election, absolutely racked with worry about the possibility of the Opposition getting into power, extremely concerned about the future of our nation if such a fate were to Dawn upon us. Thankfully, in the context of the global pandemic and the matter of reopening our borders, it didn’t.
John would completely disagree, however everything you say most would agree with.
Comments are closed.