Lee stumbles but TV3 go too far

by Jake Quinn

In tonight’s TV3 coverage of the Mt Albert By-election Duncan Garner covered the fact that National’s Melissa Lee has chosen not to attend a meet the candidates debate. Melissa Lee’s excuse for not attending was weak and quite obviously disingenuous. She suggested “she had already made plans” and couldn’t make the meeting, and that she had only received the invitation “late yesterday afternoon”.  

In a political campaign, your day’s schedule is never totally confirmed and can and should change by the hour. Whatever the media and voter attention is on, you attend. It’s that simple. Therefore, the decision by National to have Lee not attend the meeting was deliberate; she is being gagged on the Auckland Super City (the meetings topic) because she quite simply doesn’t know her stuff and is likely to embarrass the government at a time when they, after taking a week of punishment, are highly sensitive and risk averse – especially on this issue.

However, Duncan Garner’s decision to run footage of Lee repeatedly failing to string sentences together was just cruel and uncalled for. I have witnessed politicians say to their interviewer “I’ll just start that one again, can you edit it out” after fumbling an answer. Reporters normally don’t have a problem with it, unless they are trying to destroy their interviewee, which seems to be the case here.

Dim-Post on Key’s ex-friends in the media

by Jake Quinn

Danyl at the Dim-Post offers up some hilarious satire based on revelations that National and Key’s honeymoon might just be over and that journalists are starting to write the occasional thing he and his PR team might disapprove of.

Nats must thread carefully over akl transition board

by Jake Quinn

With the monthly political capital meter at an all time low for the Key-led government, it comes as no surprise that Cabinet has delayed yesterday’s announcement about the make of up of the Auckland Transition Agency’s board – what would have been expected not to cause waves just weeks ago, is now going to be the next big test for Key.

The Auckland Transition Agency was established by legislation under urgency last week, to oversee the move to the Super City structure by next year.

A few weeks back, many observers assumed that the make of the agency’s board would have been relatively uncontroversial as National, under Key, was developing a reputation as being rather centrist and politically risk averse – spotting and following public opinion in a way that was characteristic of Key’s consensus building style.

However, coupled with a disaster week in the Mt Albert by-election campaign, where Key’s hand picked candidate Melissa Lee made a series of silly mistakes effectively ruining her party’s chances of winning the unwinnable (and seriously challenging Phil Goff’s position as Labour leader), the Rankin affair has effectively ended the new government’s extended honeymoon – which had been starting to develop into something of a ‘honey-gap-year’.

So the now skeptical eyes of the press gallery will be closely focused on the Auckland Transition Agency and its board, expected to be announced in the next week. They will be looking to Key to ‘make right’ and offer up a leadership team that doesn’t stink of divisive (like Rankin) or inexperienced (like Lee). If the headlines read “Rodney Hide’s Mates to Run Auckland” it may well be curtains for Key’s dominated of the polls.