When Willie Jackson was on Q+A, Thomas Coughlan from the NZ Herald howled it was a ‘Train wreck’, well if Willie’s well received interview was a ‘Train wreck’ then Luxon on Q+A this morning was a school bus crashing into a kindergarten and exploding into a petting zoo!
Luxon is still very shaky in these interviews and that bodes poorly for the campaign. He had no comeback to Jack’s laser precision questions challenging National’s climate polices and allowing real estate pimps to profit if National wins.
He looked uncomfortable on getting push back and his stumbling perforce on why we should trust him on capital gains taxes when he stands as a person who owns 7 properties to personally benefit from them that policy so immensely.
Luxon has to be way better than this if he hopes to win and the election is just in 4 months.
With the election so close, the traditional Political Debates between the Labour and National Leaders will matter more than ever and it’s worth exploring how we think these debates will play out.
With the don’t know at 15% of the electorate, there is everything to fight for in these debates.
Luxon has the most to win and Chippy has the most to lose and they should be in debate prep now, but my guess is neither Party have their Election Policies realised yet limiting their debate training potential.
In the Blue Corner:
Luxon seems to agree to anything anyone asks him which requires him doing a u-turn 24 hours later. This is sold as ‘endearing’ because he’s ‘not a politician’. To everyone else it looks confused and incompetent and you fret a bit that he was running Air NZ while you were flying on it once.
But because the bar is so low for Luxon, if he actually dazzles during the debates, it could be the winner of the election. There have been times when he has actually sounded passionate and invested in NZ progressing, unfortunately he’s only ever sounded that way when he wants to cut benefits from disabled teenagers on welfare, military boot camps for kids and putting ankle bracelets on 10 year olds.
Chris seems to take ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’ literally.
But if he can surprise NZ with a passionate moment, he can turn a moment into a defining election event.
So, Luxon is fighting for his political career, because he is goneburger if he doesn’t beat Labour this year. National tolerate many things, a rigged capitalism for their mates, obscene profits for Banks, sexual attraction towards Landlords and a fetish for punishment, but they WILL NOT tolerate losers.
In the Red Corner:
Cut beyond the Chippy from the Hutt routine and look at Chris Hipkins for the cold hearted political killer that he is.
Over the years of watching him and talking to him I think there are 3 sides to Chippy.
There is the behind the scenes interaction and management style with his staff and colleagues that is actually almost magical. He is incredibly kind and deferential to all his colleagues and is a leader who draws out the best from his people and empowers them to step up and perform rather than push and dictate to. Expect a phenomenal loyalty to him from the Caucus and a very tight ship.
Then there is the Chippy who loves sausage rolls, Chippy from the Hutt, spread your legs, sausage roll loving, dorky competence, affable and lover of sausage rolls Chris Hipkins who you trust with your best interests at heart.
And then there is the Political Assassin Chris Hipkins who is the person the Party gets to go out and do political knee-capping. He has been the wielder of Labour’s sword many times because beyond the publicly affable and privately differential, Chris is a hard hitting pocket battleship.
The difference between Chippy and Jacinda, is Chippy will throw a punch.
Who will win?:
Luxon has a chance, and in an election this close, it could be the magical moment that propels National into the lead.
So you can’t rule it out and that’s what makes the Debates so fascinating.
However.
Chris Hipkins is a high ranking Left Wing Jedi Knight. He’s Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter and a fully automatic machine gun all rolled into one. He will eviscerate Luxon with a level of detail that sounds spookily like Helen Clarke with the knockout wit power of David Lange while authentically connecting to the middle emotionally like Jacinda.
Chippy ain’t no chump and if National walk into this trying to debate Chris Hipkins, they will lose. Luxon’s only chance is to talk to the audience and connect with them emotionally NOT debate with Hipkins because he will get whipped.
Our greatest NZ public broadcasting journalist is Barbara Dreaver, and she has FINALLY been allowed to do the journalism she was born to do and explain the geopolitical tensions in the Pacific by debating American interests in the Pacific.
This issue is going to dominate us like no other. Usually foreign affairs mean little to NZ domestic politics because we are on the edge of the world far away from anyone and anything, but the growing tensions between America and China are coming to our shores whether we like it or not.
If China was sailing warships off the Coast of America, the US would open fire!
China sees America’s encroachment in their sphere of influence as provocation and we are increasingly seeing these friction encounters between American patrolling military and Chinese forces.
NZ does not want to get dragged into a war between America and China and if we are serious about an Independent Foreign Policy, we have to accept Neutrality is going to cost us a lot more.
The Māori Party suggestion of neutrality is worth considering.
I believe that the climate crisis means we need a vastly larger military to cope with civil disasters and if we are attempting to distance ourselves from China and America, we need to make a decision to dramatically lift what we spend on the military for purely defensive and civil disaster capacity.
How would we go about defending the realm of NZ and all our economic exclusive zone?
We can’t pull away from America and China and pretend there is no cost to being Independent.
We need to increase Military GDP spending to 5%. Interestingly Labour have quietly ratcheted GDP military spending from just over 1% to just under 2%.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
If you can’t contribute but want to help, please always feel free to share our blogs on social media
I agree with TPM notion of neutrality. The price that comes with that as Martyn asserts is a greater GDP spend on the military and the introduction of compulsory military service.
The Te Puke express was deeply committed to a cliff in Maui.
The interview style of the Jack Tame and Kim Hill is the same. Have a monologue where a question or idea of a question is presented in three or four different idoms. They are complete incapable of asking a single question that can be answered by anyone simply. Each dialog (diatribe) contains possible three or four questions.
Once the interviewee does gets access to the talking stick, after a five minute ear bashing, the first thing the likes of Tame and Hill ilk do, is interrupt to break up the answering dialog and start a dialog for the next set of questions. Make the interviewee look like they are stumbling simply because they are not given time and space to answer the dialog that contains three or four further questions.
Now Luxon is no good at that format of questioning. Not many people are but the interviewer is not doing the public a service unless it is deliberately to make the interviewee look bumbling and the interviewer the ego stroked hero.
I would like to see the interviewee ask for the talking stick to hold and be able to answer a barrage of questions in a civilised and listened to manner.
Tame and Hill are not the interviewers the public should listen to, they like the sound of their own voice and simply will not let anyone speak to the topics they (the interviewer) raises.
Tame and Hill ask pertinent questions in setting a narrative. That the interviewee goes off on a completely different tangent and doesn’t answer the question means they have to ask it again and again and again. Luxon is a lightweight, he was on TV bitching and whinging about how NZ is “becoming” a country of bitchers and whingers – lol . It’s people like Luxon who are doing all the bitching and whinging because they can’t see the problem. That is because they are the problem.
Hey Bradbury!. Open your other eye and write an article about Labours idiots!
Was a labour MP interviewed this morning? You do realise that labour having idiots doesn’t stop Luxon being an idiot?
As an add on to my previous comment about interviewers, I must add that politicians do themselves no great favours by not answering question in a succinct and honest manner. Waffle, waffle, waffle. No wonder interviewers have the need to interrupt. Maybe the lesson is that interviewers need to steer to conversation to get to the point rather than blabber on themselves to lecture the politician.
Both are terrible at getting messages across. The communications departments for each are only about taking up space (time) and incessant mindless chatter.
Nah, no political panel for Q&A. That would spoil it… they’re usually just a trio of egos trying to out-do one another.
Stick with Jack and Barbara et Al. They’re a class act who take no prisoners.
I would say that Luxon will collapse in a heap during the debates. He doesn’t possess the intellect to answer questions especially indepth questions? He lacks the mental ability to answer anything outside of his limited realm of thinking.
He is elusive with being truthful and from observation regularly resorts to pre-rehearsed statements that have become almost like a Mantra for him. He will not answer a question but instead will twist his ‘answer’ to a question into a blame this government tirade that is pre-rehearsed.
In other words Luxon and probably so many other National Party MPs and their supporters beat the well Outdated NZ National Party Blame-Game Drum Mantra Drum because it has become an almost Brainwashing Response by them. When say Luxon cannot answer a question he, like so many others in National, will resort to blaming someone else. To me this highlights their inability to think intelligently or with any cognitive ability.
So methinks Luxon will pretty soon have a melt-down when someone like Jack(or is it Jake as Luxon called him during the interview)Tame asks a tricky question. Fortunately for Luxon he has those biased towards National Lackeys like Jenny May, Matty and ABF to be all giggly and chummy to him as like Luxon they do not possess the intellectual abilities to ask intelligent indepth questions to someone like Luxon.
Mind you watch this space. Luxon might pull something out of the ever-diminishing bag only to Flip-Flop on it 24 hours later.
Talking about the blame game after 5 years in power all Labour ministers do is still blame National for the issues that are not being fixed .When will they take onpwnership of their muck ups in health ,education, housing , crime , prisons ,poverty ,immegration to name a few
The impotence of Hipkins’ response to Wood this year throws shade on the argument of a political Jedi Knight – more like a Mall cop in the US.
Yes this election is going to be a cripple fight…….
Two climate cucks going at it.
As for GE, it’s known to produce larger yields that are less nutritional.
Leave the poor plants alone – cross breed YES, GE.. Hard PASS!
I was considering giving my electoral vote to National here in Christchurch, to stop Labour coming through the middle..
..now it’s 2 Ticks ACT, or 1 Tick NZF and 1 Tick ACT.
National are totally unacceptable.
But what is ACTs policy on GE crops and animals?
Good read. I find myself agreeing with most of it.
This from Luxon. National getting in would eviscerate us and knock down any defences we have held, give away our resources, strip us of everything in a last crazy fire sale. Their pragmatic approach would be that we will probably burn anyway like Canada, so sell it off before it gets destroyed by climate or vandalism.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/491773/national-would-end-genetic-modification-ban-if-elected – NZ stuck in ‘time warp’ – RNZ heading
“Our laws have really been in a time warp from 1996 to 2003,” he said.
“There’s been huge advances, very exciting advances in the technology – and actually what we need to do is end the effective ban on genetic technologies as we’ve been talking about, but also make sure that we’ve got good safeguards in place.”
The current legislation – last amended 20 years ago – permitted genetic research in laboratories, but field trials outside the lab need approval.
For what it’s worth, I support lifting the ban on GM, provided strict regulations are in place. We are being left behind by other nations in this field, and if we are to have a more environmentally friendly agriculture sector, we are going to have to embrace it.
Good to know we agree on something
Yeah – but who’s GMO’s Millsy – Luxons mates at Unilever or Monsanto? – look at how the roundup ready crops debacle has played out in the US – complete and utter bullshit, debasement and corruption via monopolistic and oligarchic business practices.
@millsy FGS talk about Loosehead Len. GMOs are dangerous toys for venturesome girls and boys. And that is the level of maturity that applies to the keen blinkered scientist and onlooker.
One I admire had a wonderful obituary – Paul Crutzen. A scientist using the discipline to prevent disaster.
https://www.mpic.de/4677594/trauer-um-paul-crutzen (Max Planck Institute)
and in 1974, the now famous paper by Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina warned that chlorine released from chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) could destroy ozone in the stratosphere. https://public.wmo.int/en/bulletin/ozone-layer-mend-0
Luxon needs to work on his body language he looked like he was seething not a good look for a wannabe PM.
Luxon going after the ACT votes he lost…
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/national-wants-to-keep-agriculture-off-the-ets-give-farmers-more-time-before-paying-for-emissions/ar-AA1cqoIj?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=d6bc701b6d7c4f0b9b6abe685595ea8b&ei=7
wHAT, IM! not conflicted,, im not intending to sell my four investment houses in New Zealand!. Conflicted n, im not, What a complete train wreck coming to the nat!s party ball.
Jack better watch it…. The skids will be under him… dirty politics….we have the power + the money!
I saw this headline and missed the interview. I watched it yesterday. Jack was a bit of an idiot and clearly wanted to trap Luxon. Let’s be honest, Luxon did miss a few opportunities here but I didn’t think he was as bad as what the headline etc. said.
A story with an agenda which Martyn will continue to belt out in this odd fear of the govt changing.
I hate nation comparing but to put a little light on something, if the National Party were in the US they would be seen as lefty woke – a little toned down prospective perhaps.
I like the passion though Martyn.
Or, as his wife!s Lexus, garnerd Labour!s tax largesse for electric care ride, the train wreck, continues now like, im not negative, and my personal finances IM! not prepared to discuss, he! WANABBEE, YOU WILL HAVE TO.
This morning, fool or egit, he blaiming the present government with negativity, about our land, yet he and his cronnies cannot control his blinded thought of bottom feeders and breeders. What a engine driver your train.
Comments are closed.