What's interesting though, is it's the second poll in a row to show Christopher Luxon edging up in the preferred PM stakes... so, is he turning a corner in terms of likeability? Because he's seemingly been a hard sell. Though people are sick of the direction the country’s going in, they’ve been unconvinced he’s the saviour.
And let’s be honest, personality politics dictates that we have to love or hate the person who fronts the party. It’s not the reality of course. The Party is a whole team, but we seem to be obsessed with the front person. No better example of that than Jacindamania, which then turned to so much vitriol against her that she ended up stepping down to save the party’s chances.
Chippy came in as the great hope; he had boy next door vibes, he loved a sausage roll, people were enamoured with the prospect of fresh blood. But he too has gradually eroded that popularity.
Which leaves us with the alternative... Christopher Luxon. Who, arguably, has had a tough run, but how much should a leader play the media and look to be Mr Popularity, versus just doing the job? I mean look at Jacinda. Played the media and the public like a fiddle. Did not put a foot wrong, everyone ate out of the palm of her hand, the international press lapped it up, she was queen bee.
But as we now know, how good a leader was she? What was really going on behind the scenes? How tight of a ship was she running and how good were they as a government under her leadership? Useless. As we now know, complete chaos. Poor old Hipkins has been mopping up the fallout ever since. So while she was popular, she was shambles. We elected a leader with zero experience of running anything, to run our country because she was popular. Look how that turned out. What might happen if we elect a leader who isn’t Mr popularity, but knows how to run stuff? What would you prefer?
I reckon Luxon is a good operator behind the scenes. Solid, methodical, strategic. His record speaks for itself at Air NZ, he’s reigned in the Nats which was leaking and falling apart, he’s stopped all that – and I don’t think got enough credit for it. I just don’t think he’s great on camera. He seems uncomfortable around the press pack, and to be frank, wouldn’t you be if you were him? I also think there’s been a bit of a campaign around his unpopularity which has been peddled beyond its legitimacy. But if you look at the latest poll results, he’s actually only 4 points off Chippy now in the preferred PM stakes.
But here’s the thing, for all those who've been calling Luxon out as a loser and saying he should step aside for Nicola Willis, I think that’s misguided and myopic. Look at the big picture, what’s our issue as a country right now? 65 and a half percent of us don’t like the direction it’s going in, according to the latest poll. That’s a great big majority of Kiwis saying, this sucks.
So what do we want? Things run better, handled better, going in a better direction. Can Luxon do that? I think so yes. I don’t know him personally, but I don’t obsess with how he appears on TV. Look at the team, and in the case of Luxon the leader, look at his record.
Kate Hawkesby is a political broadcaster on Newstalk ZB - her articles can be seen HERE.
9 comments:
Not everyone ate out of the palm of Arderns hand.
She was (and still is) a vacuous political no body prior to becoming the face of identity politics in New Zealand and she has gone back to being a no body because her legacy isn't a legacy, it is a mill stone strapped firmly to every citizens neck.
I always saw through the " cheerful chippy" pr marketing. In reality this guy is the 2nd worst politician nz has ever had. Ardern was the worst. He run the dystopian covid lockdowns, saying that only gangs could cross the akl border and imposing that awful lottery on nz citizens, that no other country in the world was doing. I see him and his comrades for what they are.
I have no doubt he will be able to run things better, in general National does. At the same time, National seldom changes the country's direction, just take whatever direction Labor has set and make it work better.
This is not what we need this time. We need the strength of character to force a change, I am not sure Chris has the either the belief or mettle. Hope to be proved wrong.
I wish Christopher Luxon well and hope for the sake of our country’s survival, prevails. Whilst this deplorable government’s performance escapes scrutiny from the left leaning media these very same cretins have Luxon in their crosshairs dying to unleash their poison on the most vaguest of transgressions.
Yep, and hugely unpopular internationally.
There are some people that can judge a character and then there are the gullible Anna.
Perhaps it is time for some people to become aware that not everything that is is as it seems.
Per David Farrar's analysis of polls close to an election Chris Luxon is the 4th most popular opposition leader in the last 40 years. Evidence that the left wing media beat up of Luxon is based on misinformation.
He may be a good operator behind the scenes, but a good leader is not behind. She/he/they/it is in front.
National has plenty of good behind-the-scenes operators. It's in the leadership department that it is lacking. That does not mean he would not be a good PM though - we could all do with boring steady as it goes leadership. Luxon is just not great as a leader during a campaign.
CXH is right. We do not need a good manager this time. We need a strong leader with a clear vision for the future of NZ and one that knows how to bring the country back together. I do not think Luxon has the leadership strength to do that.
If National/ACT win, it will not be because of winning the battle of ideas but it will simply be because the current Government has been so bad.
I think you might be right Kate. Can't agree that the previous PM stood down to save the Labour Party's chances though. The reason she stood down was to try and rescue her own chances after more and more people started to see through her fraudulent demeanour.
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