Sure, his campaign diary will be full and it’ll be a pain in the butt to rearrange things to fit in an afternoon and evening in Christchurch, because it is a several hours long operation to get ready for a debate and then do the debate.
But if he really wanted to do it, he would. He just doesn’t.
Fair enough- he's leading in the polls, and there’s no reason to do that debate because Luxon's not great in long debates and interviews. I mean he holds his own, but he gets tripped up on detail.
The TV3 Paddy Gower debate- he got himself tied up in knots over whether kids who take MDMA at festivals are criminals or not.
The 2 hour long interview with Mike Hosking yesterday- he said it was up to the Police Minister to fire the Police Commissioner. But actually it’s not, it's up to the Prime Minister… which would be him.
Those don’t matter too much because they’re not big missteps- yet.
So doing the debate would just help Chippy. And remember, it was that TV3 debate where Chippy came out firing that actually breathed life into his campaign again.
Chippy wants it badly, because he needs the audience. Luxon doesn’t.
So yeah, Luxon’s chickening out. But he’s also making what is - for him - a smart strategic decision.
And the best of all is that we don’t have to sit through another debate in this boring campaign.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show.
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