Cam Slater: Media and Hipkins Handing Winston Free Hits

In the unseemly debate on Wednesday night Chris Hipkins used a quote from NZ First candidate Rob Ballantyne out of context. It allowed Winston Peters to have a free hit and get free publicity across all the media at once, hijacking the news cycle brilliantly.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has backed Rangitata candidate Rob Ballantyne, saying if a quote by Ballantyne which Labour leader Chris Hipkins used in the Newshub debate related to the “disease of co-governance”, then he was “backing him to the hilt”.

Hipkins had read out the quote, saying that when talking about Maori at a candidates’ meeting, an NZ First candidate had said: “Cry if you want to, we don’t care. We are the party with the cultural mandate and the courage to cut out your disease and bury you permanently.”

Hipkins had then asked National leader Christopher Luxon if he thought it was racist – and if he would be comfortable working with people who held such views. Luxon responded that it was racist, and emphasised Peters was a “last resort” option for him.

Hipkins did not name the candidate, but it was Rangitata candidate Rob Ballantyne. The Herald has approached Ballantyne for comment.

NZ Herald

See David Seymour, that’s how you do it, you back your candidate and you don’t throw them under the bus.

Peters has now issued a statement, saying Hipkins is clearly running a “dirt campaign” against NZ First by trawling up comments his candidates have made. He also had a go at Luxon for passing judgement on the quote used in last night’s election debate without checking the context.

“That is not showing experience. Any experienced person would demand to know what the context was of the quote being talked about before getting sucked in.”

Asked by the NZ Herald this morning if he backed that quote, Peters said Hipkins had not set out the context in which the quote was given, and he had been told it related to Covid-19.

When he was informed Ballantyne himself had since told Stuff he was referring to the Maori elite and the likes of Labour’s Willie Jackson, Peters said Ballantyne had previously spoken about the “disease” of co-governance.

“If you say he was talking about co-governance and the way it was handled, then I’m backing him to the hilt. Because co-governance is a disease and it is destructing [sic] our democracy. You got that?

“And it is a disease, I’m not backing away from that either. I’ve been on this campaign for two and a half years telling you about democracy hanging by a thread and about two governments in this country: two systems in health, two systems in education, two everything.”

Asked if he had spoken to Ballantyne about it, he said: “If I had or hadn’t spoken to him, I wouldn’t be telling you.”

NZ Herald

And that right there is another per cent or two to NZ First; calling it out, and defending democracy rather than simpering and kowtowing to the racist agenda of Maori elites like Willie Jackson and his fellow travellers.

He questioned why there was so much interest in it, saying the media had barely covered Peters’ speeches over the last two years, “and somebody way down the list says something, and now it’s a big issue with you people”.

Ballantyne told Stuff his quote was taken out of context and he did not believe it was racist. He said the Maori elite included the likes of Labour’s Willie Jackson.

“It’s just those top elite – we call them the conspirators, the Maori separatists that want to base co-governance come self-governance on a racial-based future, and we don’t want that.”

On August 17, Ballantyne explained his reasons for running for Parliament on Reality Check Radio NZ, hosted by Cam Slater.

NZ Herald

Hah! Even the Herald staff listen to my show. Rob was a very pleasant chap to talk to.

Hipkins is an idiot. He’s spent this entire campaign talking about other parties and candidates. As a consequence, no one knows, or even cares, what he has to say.

Luxon for his part got sucked in. Dirty Labour, dirty media. I knew when Hipkins made his claim that there was more to it than a random quote by one of the candidates. But Luxon went full woke instead of asking for context, and now it has blown up in his face as well as Hipkins.

Hipkins reeks of desperation, and we all know that desperation is a stinky cologne. But he’s being helped by an ever-dirty media as well.

He said NZ First, which was “absolutely playing the race card”, and Act were dividing New Zealanders who “deserved better than that”. 

NewstalkZB

Hipkins is a bit rich claiming that as that’s EXACTLY what Labour have spent the last two terms doing – playing the favour-Maori-over-everyone-else race card and dividing New Zealanders. We also mustn’t forget the divisive nature of Ardern’s and Hipkins’s vaccine mandates which turned mate against mate, family members against each other, and destroyed jobs, careers, livelihoods and businesses. So if anyone is causing divisiveness it is Chris Hipkins.

But all this free publicity is just boosting NZ First’s chances as people get to hear more about where they stand on issues, all as a result of the silly tactics of Hipkins and the Media Party.

Cam Slater is a New Zealand-based blogger, best known for his role in Dirty Politics and publishing the Whale Oil Beef Hooked blog, which operated from 2005 until it closed in 2019. Cam blogs regularly on the BFD - where this article was sourced.