Wayne is Auckland's mayor and Wayne wasn’t up to much, apparently, when he should have been last Friday.
He has since apologised, called a review and rung the Herald to tell them not to “f “ him over.
My observation of the week is a lot of people didn’t really perform the way they should have.
But as I have said several times this week, I wasn’t expecting them to.
This country has been littered over the years with various disasters that weren't dealt to properly because the people who frequent the emergency and civil defence offices are fairly mediocre.
You can add the Ministry of Education in this time around. Blame Wayne all you want but their performance was spectacular in its level of incompetence.
The trouble with Wayne, like most stories, is blame can be shared about a bit.
Wayne is a cantankerous old sod who doesn’t suffer fools. But here's the thing - we knew that.
I think I might have had the advantage over many who got all agitated, given I wasn’t expecting much from anyone, I wasn’t disappointed.
You see, you can't have it both ways. You can't ignore local body politics the way most people do and then get grumpy when they don’t perform, it's a two-way street.
Wayne won an election and he won it by a lot. He has a mandate and to this point he is operating to form.
Which brings us to the media. He doesn’t like the media and the media don’t like him.
Add also the fact the media in general take themselves too seriously. So when he calls them drongos, 1) he is right but, 2) they shouldn’t get so tetchy about it.
Wayne isn't setting the world on fire but equally there is no doubt in my mind the media are out to get Wayne because they wanted Efeso Collins to win and they can't believe the rest of the world doesn’t think like they do.
And on that point, Wayne is in fact right. He won, he has a mandate and he's got three years. He doesn’t have to resign and he doesn’t have to give interviews. The ultimate test of that approach will come in 2025 and it's called democracy.
Which brings us back to the start of this - if we all actually participated in democracy a bit better this whole week might have been a lot different.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings.
This country has been littered over the years with various disasters that weren't dealt to properly because the people who frequent the emergency and civil defence offices are fairly mediocre.
You can add the Ministry of Education in this time around. Blame Wayne all you want but their performance was spectacular in its level of incompetence.
The trouble with Wayne, like most stories, is blame can be shared about a bit.
Wayne is a cantankerous old sod who doesn’t suffer fools. But here's the thing - we knew that.
I think I might have had the advantage over many who got all agitated, given I wasn’t expecting much from anyone, I wasn’t disappointed.
You see, you can't have it both ways. You can't ignore local body politics the way most people do and then get grumpy when they don’t perform, it's a two-way street.
Wayne won an election and he won it by a lot. He has a mandate and to this point he is operating to form.
Which brings us to the media. He doesn’t like the media and the media don’t like him.
Add also the fact the media in general take themselves too seriously. So when he calls them drongos, 1) he is right but, 2) they shouldn’t get so tetchy about it.
Wayne isn't setting the world on fire but equally there is no doubt in my mind the media are out to get Wayne because they wanted Efeso Collins to win and they can't believe the rest of the world doesn’t think like they do.
And on that point, Wayne is in fact right. He won, he has a mandate and he's got three years. He doesn’t have to resign and he doesn’t have to give interviews. The ultimate test of that approach will come in 2025 and it's called democracy.
Which brings us back to the start of this - if we all actually participated in democracy a bit better this whole week might have been a lot different.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings.
4 comments:
Disraeli: Never complain, never explain.
Mayor Brown should not have apologized - a sign of weakness.
One can only imagine the terrible post-Goff mess to be sorted. Simon Wilson - The Guardian's Auckland agent - carping at his heels is an ongoing tribulation.
Keep playing your tennis, Wayne!
Well said Mike. I'm with Wayne.
The word drongo was nostalgic of the past. The dictionary definiton is in keeping with his usage. In the 1970s I visited Gt Barrier Is and stayed with a couple who had gone there 20 years earlier. They retained all the curious expresions of the 1950s,"what a dag" and a myriad others, many of which would send Meng Foon apoplectic.
It never hurts to apologise. Sometimes we find out that something we said or did hurt someone unintentionally. Do we call them silly for being upset or is it more useful to say "I'm sorry you were hurt"?
Or when we admit we could have done better, saying sorry is good.
Anyone can learn but only if they want to. Mayor Brown needs to learn a few new tricks fast to make his life easier.
MC
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