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Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson invited the Opposition to his office. Photo / Mark Mitchell
COMMENT:
It was quite an hour in Parliament: Gaurav Sharma fizzled, Willie Jackson fumbled, Kelvin Davis offended and David Seymour accused.
The anticipation of Gaurav Sharma asking Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern a question was wasted.
But he confused with safety concerns about politicians – as though a threat to kill to an MP were not a legitimate concern.
Ardern despatched him with the fact that “decisions around security for politicians are operational.”
Jackson was not quite so successful. He is known for his energy but not his political deftness.
He was being questioned by National’s broadcasting spokeswoman Melissa Lee about the TVNZ-RNZ merger.
Lee doesn’t make a lot of headlines often but it is a foolish minister who underestimates her political skills, as former minister Clare Curran found out last term.
Lee was putting the heat on Jackson over the cost of the merger and asking why there was no Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) by officials about the merger or a cost-benefit analysis. He disputed her claim that the merger would cost $370 million, saying it would cost $40 million over four years.
Speaker Adrian Rurawhe allowed her to repeat her question about why there was no regulatory impact statement or cost-benefit analysis.
“I’ll come back to the member on that,” Jackson replied to howls of derision. He broke the cardinal rule of ministerial answers which is never to admit that you don’t know something that you should.
Rurawhe awarded Lee another question for that answer.
And she asked again, to which Jackson said that a cost-benefit analysis had been done.
Where? Cried the Opposition.
“Come to my office and I’ll show you,” he replied.
Lee changed tack to ask about the reasons for the merger, and this allowed Jackson to completely free-wheel down a path, skidding out of control with no notes. The change was needed, he said, because New Zealand had changed.
“We no longer have trust in national media … we need a trusted public broadcaster because national identity is incredibly important and no longer do people trust New Zealand television or New Zealand radio … we need a national broadcaster for a great public identity.”
Labour backbencher Naisi Chen asked a pre-scripted question about why it was needed and Jackson went back to his pre-scripted answer, which is essentially because other countries such as Australia, Ireland and Canada do it too.
Labour deputy leader Kelvin Davis caused a kerfuffle earlier in Question Time in response to questions from Act’s Karen Chhour about Oranga Tamariki.
Chhour is a successful Māori woman who had a harrowing start in life, much of it in the care of welfare, so she has a special interest in Oranga Tamariki.
She asked about a contract Davis’ ministry Oranga Tamariki had signed with Te Whanau of Waipareira, run by John Tamihere.
She also made a reference to the Herald story about donations to Tamihere’s mayoral campaign in 2019 from Waipareira Trust Group, and questioned whether the partnership was being reconsidered.
Davis said: “What the member needs to do is to cross the bridge that is Te Tiriti o Waitangi from her Pākehā world into the Māori world and understand exactly how to Māori world operates. It’s no good looking to the world from a vanilla lens.”
After Question Time, Chhour told reporters she found his response offensive. “I am a Māori woman and I’ve been through the care system and I can tell you Māori children aren’t that different to every other child. They just want to feel loved and feel safe.
“I’m here trying to make a difference for those children … attacking me like that and basically taking away my mana from a party that stands up and says they want to give Māori back their mana is actually quite distressing for me.”
The politics of race continued. Question Time on Wednesday is followed by the general debate of five-minute speeches and Act’s David Seymour led it with an attack on Te Pāti Māori’s website.
Specifically it was about the Māori Party statement: “It’s a known fact that the Māori genetic makeup is stronger than others.”
“It is not some dark website in the corner of the dark web. This is Te Pati Māori who have two seats in our Parliament and claims to oppose racism.”
Seymour got some sympathy from Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon who said he wanted to discuss it with the Māori Party but that was two weeks ago and the statement was still there.
Neither Māori Party MP was present for the speech – Seymour sits next to co-leader Rawiri Waititi.
Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson is famous for his general debate speeches and prepared one on what he called National’s fiscal Bermuda Triangle, where facts mysteriously disappear.
He talked about an interview National leader Christopher Luxon had on RNZ’s Morning Report on Wednesday.
“He started out okay, because he said that our economy was in better shape than the United Kingdom — thank you very much, Mr Luxon, for that.
“But then he was asked: ‘Would you rule out further borrowing for tax cuts?’
“First he said ‘yes’ then he said ‘no’ and then when confronted with this question for a third time, [host] Corin Dann said, ‘So, borrowing for tax cuts, that’s off the agenda Christopher Luxon?’
“Well, that’s a separate issue,” Luxon had said.
Within the space of 46 seconds, Luxon had entered, exited and sank in the fiscal Bermuda Triangle when being questioned about how he would fund tax cuts.
Robertson entertained, as ever.
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