FEBRUARY 29 2020 LISTENER 63
TV REVIEW
‘T
he reality is,” Simon Bridges
informed Jack Tame, on
TVNZ’s Q+A, “we live in
a world of reality.” That’s
a lot of reality this early in an
election year when, traditionally,
if anything is depressingly up for
grabs, it’s reality.
Reality in election year: it inevi-
tably finds itself in collision with
well-loved political clichés. “I’m
not going to tell voters what to
do,” Bridges told Tame resolutely.
“Well, actually,” he continued,
unable to resist the golden oppor-
tunity offered by television to
never stop telling voters what to
do, “I want you to vote for me.” As
he explained helpfully, more than
once, “If you want a National gov-
ernment, you have to vote for it.”
Tame, looking mildly exasper-
ated, took a firm tone with this sort
of carry-on. “Just let me finish,”
he snapped. And, “Just answer the
question. It’s a simple question!”
If he’s already this irritable with party
political blaguing, by September his
head is going to explode.
Another unavoidable casualty of
any election campaign: the long-
suffering English language. Asked
about the path to power now that
National has ruled out any post-
election deal with New Zealand First,
Bridges cited encouraging polls but
expected a tight MMP race: “We don’tDon’t count your
clichés when party
leaders clutch at
election year
chickens.
Take nope for granted
“It’s an alleged
palaver,” Holt
said, suggestingthe word’s
meaning
was a bit of amystery to the
Breakfast team.take, ah, count our chickens for granted.” Well, you
wouldn’t.
Tame asked about the likelihood of other minor
parties supporting National. “There’s the Māori
Party,” Bridges said. “The Māori Party said they
probably wouldn’t support you,” Tame said. “I’m
not going to play that game, Jack,” Bridges said. By
then, what with the counting and the chickens, I’d
lost track of what the game was.
TVNZ’s Breakfast was all over the NZ First Foun-
dation difficulties. “That political party donations
thing is a palaver, which is obviously the word ofthe day,” cried Hadyn Jones, before deciding to
spell it: “P-a ..., P-a ...” He retired defeated. “Pav-
lova!” suggested newsreader Anna Burns-Francis,
coming to the rescue with an easier word to spell.
Co-host Hayley Holt weighed in – “It’s an alleged
palaver,” – demonstrating that the word’s meaning
was also a bit of a mystery to the Breakfast team.
Jones was standing in for John Campbell, who
would have known how to spell palaver.
Never mind. Back on Q+A, Tame had possibly
mesmerised Bridges with his elaborate TV-presenterhand gestures – the point, the pistol,
the prayerful fingertip steeple. He
got Bridges to admit National had
dropped the ball on housing when in
government. “We were two years too
late in what we did.”H
olt didn’t fare so well with
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
on Breakfast. Asking, as was
everyone, about those NZ First dona-
tions, she got schooled on never
framing questions that can elicit
a yes/no answer. Or, in this case,
a yes/nope answer. Ardern talked
about waiting for the independ-
ent agencies investigating before
applying a judgment. “Is it also,
though, because you know that
you need NZ First in order to
form a government after the
election?” hazarded Holt. “Nope,”
said the Prime Minister. “That’s
probably the shortest answer I’ve
ever given you.” Holt asked a
more open-ended question, about
the photos of two journalists
meeting a former NZ First presi-
dent that ended up on a blog.
The answer? “... yes, you have
questions around how that photo
ended up on that blog, but that
is a question for the leader of NZ
First, not for me.” In other words,
still nope.
Nope could catch on as an
election-year media strategy. It may
not be the most relentlessly positive
of answers, but it’s effective. Still,
Ardern looked aggravated at having
to deal with NZ First fallout when
there are other chickens she’d surely
rather not be taking for granted. Any
chance she’ll be free any time soon of
this sort of palaver? Nope. l
Q+A, TVNZ 1, Sunday, 9.00am;
BREAKFAST, TVNZ 1, weekdays, 6.00am.DIANA
WICHTEL
1
3
2
4
- Simon Bridges.
2. Jack Tame.
3. Hayley Holt.
4. Jacinda Ardern.
TV
NZ