Clive Bibby: A Critique of the Critics

Tova O’Brien’s promise to present as an impartial fearless observer of the politicians’ performances in the first week of the election campaign could not disguise her naked aversion for National’s launch.

Her remarks following Luxon’s “Big day out” were in sharp contrast to her kid gloves treatment of Hipkins’ more mundane performance.

Although the barbs reserved for Luxon’s pledge card were, on their own, fair comment and to be expected given the National leader was re-using an old trick employed by Labour during Helen Clark’s years in the top job.

Whether they will have any influence on Voters’ minds at this late stage is anybody’s guess but it is always advisable to provide the electorate with referable documentation explaining what those promises could mean to those interested enough to enquire.

But O'Brien’s promise of close scrutiny of the Labour leader’s own opening rally only stated the obvious and showed more of a reluctance to “kick a man when he was down” than a credible analysis of the PM’s defence of the Government’s record.

It is somewhat ironic, but not surprising, that some of the best political commentaries in the lead up to this election come from those who have impressive Left Wing heritages - people like Drs Michael Bassett and Bryce Edwards plus others with similar histories although mainly in the Union movement like Chris Trotter.

The fact that these giants of NZ’s political history appear in lock step with their current analysis of the Labour-led Coalition failures says a lot about the true state of Kiwi political parties this close to the big day.

In fact their united scathing criticisms would seem to suggest that the result is already a forgone conclusion.

All the more reason for people like Tova O’Brien to be more honest about her own preferences by coming out more like Kim Hill does on National Radio where there is no attempt to disguise a left wing bias - relying instead on her natural abilities to get to the truth and by so doing, earn much more respect for her comments.

It is bad enough expecting the average “Jo Blow” to make sense of all the hype surrounding the individual campaign launches, let alone sift through the mountain of disingenuous rubbish trying to find information that will lead to an informed choice at the ballot box in October.

Unfortunately the battle for the Voters’ hearts and minds is not helped by a craven media in all its forms which, with only a few exceptions, is hell bent on ensuring the re-election of the incumbent bunch of incompetents. Although it is unlikely they will win, in that context it is amazing that the opposition parties are even close, let alone ahead in the polls.

However, thankfully it would appear that this Country is one of the few remaining democracies where the result can still be a fair reflection of public opinion on the day - where the government is chosen in spite of the media bias that is destroying democracy throughout so much of western civilisation.

I wish it were not so.

Clive Bibby is a commentator, consultant, farmer and community leader, who lives in Tolaga Bay.