MARCH 10 2018 LISTENER 63
LIFE
Substance over syrup
The Prime
Minister’s
media minders
seem to want
to cast her as
Snow White.
STEVE BOLTONBILL
RALSTON
I
t was truly awful. Many people
commented online that it was
“creepy”, describing his syrupy
baritone questions as “sleazy”. It
was Charles Wooley from Australian
TV’s 60 Minutes oozing his septuage-
narian charm all over our Jacinda and
Clarke. His attempt to work out the
moment of the baby’s conception was
probably the lowest point of many
low points during the programme.
Jacinda and Clarke, the “First
Bloke”, according to Wooley, looked
nonplussed but gamely answered.
Part of me wants to blame the
Ardern-Gayfords for the road-crash
programme, because they’ve been
asking for it. Since the
election, they have
specialised in “cutesy
couple” stories. A
recent sugary exposé
about their first date is
the latest journalistic
atrocity.
However, Labour’s
public relations
people should have
recognised the
long-established
fact that Australian
60 Minutes is way
past its safe “use by”
date and that, after a
quarter of a century
on the programme,
Wooley, in most of
his “human interest”
yarns, is like thoseJacinda Ardern
needs to cut the
sugar and start
talking seriously.
drooling old labradors that end up affec-
tionately humping your leg.T
he Prime Minister should realise there is an
old maxim that says if you want to be taken
seriously, start talking seriously about serious
things. There’s no doubt she is a genuinely good
communicator, relaxed, funny and intelligent.
Apart from the election debates in which she
excelled, the problem to date has often been her
content. Her media minders seem to want to cast
her as Snow White in a Walt Disney world. She is
much better than that, and if the trend of mushy,
claptrap stories continues, over time she will find
her stature considerably diminished.
Yes, leaders can and should smile, laugh and
joke in the media. Even Winston Peters can emit a
Muldoon-like grunting chuckle as he eviscerates a
young reporter or two. However, too much happy
chat and too little substance can lead to the impres-
sion that a leader is hollow, superficial and vacuous.
I don’t believe Ardern is that, but her image will
drift in that direction unless she gets a better grip
on her media management.
I know Jacindamaniacs will scoff, burn thismagazine and send me hate mail
when I say this, but there seems to
be a false perception among journal-
ists and Government supporters that
this administration is in a powerful
electoral position and likely to remain
in government for the next three
terms. They overlook the fact that
the second and third Labour Govern-
ments were out after one term, the
fourth after just two. MMP has made
the position even more unstable.
When a third party becomes part of
a government, support dwindles rap-
idly. Ask the Alliance, United Future,
the Maori Party – or NZ First in 2008.
There is no guarantee Labour will get
lifesaving support from its partners in- Although, to be frank, there is
also no guarantee that National will
get help then, either, which makes
its choice of new leader all the more
important.
The task Simon Bridges faces is to
either find a new party to buddy up
to or get more than
50% of the vote at
the next election. I
think we can work on
the assumption that
Act is knackered and
will be back with only
one seat. Not enough,
Bridges.
Maybe that idea of
the Bluegreens will
come to pass. A conser-
vation party without
the hard-left econom-
ics of the Greens. I
wonder what Nikki
Kaye is up to these
days, and if National
pulled out of running a
candidate in Auckland
Central, could that do
the trick? l