He could not adequately respond to questions about how he viewed the military action taken against the very nuanced official statement on the Beehive website. This is largely because Luxon, unlike Key, is not a natural politician.
This skill deficit does not bother me at all and, nor I suspect, most Kiwis. They want a government that can deliver better services and help ease cost of living pressures. However for the woke left wing media majority, who dislike Luxon and hate Trump, nothing less than clear criticism of the military attacks on Iran is good enough, even if there are negative economic consequences for NZ from the vindictive Trump. (Luke Malpass who wrote a balanced article on Luxon and Iran, is excluded from the above.)
So the mainstream media give space also to former PM Helen Clark and Foreign Minister Phil Goff. Both Clark and Goff are seriously intelligent and well informed foreign policy wonks. The trouble is they are wedded to the post war framework of international rules based order which was never perfectly operational and has seriously crumbled over the past decade. Only romantics think it’s coming back any time soon.
We have no world government and the proxies for that dream, are incapable of enforcing rules. When major nations such as the USA, Russia, China and dozens of other countries are not wedded to the international rules created post World War 2, we need alternatives urgently.
As the Canadian PM Carney says, the middle powers (and implicitly small nations) just have to accept the world has changed and make agreements with each other that achieve positive results for them.
While I despise Trump I do accept some of the issues he has focussed are legitimate and required action. This includes protecting borders much better. That is not to excuse the policy excesses. It seems some commentators hate Trump so much they won’t credit anything he does as having merit.
What Israel and the USA achieve in the Middle East is not easily predicted, other than turmoil and change. One positive side benefit is depriving Russia of drones to attack Ukraine, many of which come from Iran. The assault on Maduro and Venezuela is another negative for Putin.
The Gulf States will gain from Iran’s military capacity being degraded. However the ideology behind the Iranian authorities will not vanish nor will their ability to keep manufacturing and using drones etc to attack Gulf States, Israel and the USA. Nor can the Americans and Israelis be sure that Iran is permanently prevented from developing nuclear weapons. North Korea might help them if neither Russia nor China will.
Given his limited verbal dancing skills I recommend Luxon do the following:
With open ended media engagements such as Monday’s press conferences, he responds to the questions to the extent he can give a clear answer. If the same questions persist ask those attending if there is another topic.
If not say thank you and leave the stage.
With media appointments get his staff to negotiate the parameters of the engagement and stick to them. There is no law which says even the PM has to engage with media and play by their rules.
Establish your own rules and stick to them.
Barrie Saunders has a background in Government Relations and blogs at www.barriesaunders.wordpress.com. - where this article was sourced.
So the mainstream media give space also to former PM Helen Clark and Foreign Minister Phil Goff. Both Clark and Goff are seriously intelligent and well informed foreign policy wonks. The trouble is they are wedded to the post war framework of international rules based order which was never perfectly operational and has seriously crumbled over the past decade. Only romantics think it’s coming back any time soon.
We have no world government and the proxies for that dream, are incapable of enforcing rules. When major nations such as the USA, Russia, China and dozens of other countries are not wedded to the international rules created post World War 2, we need alternatives urgently.
As the Canadian PM Carney says, the middle powers (and implicitly small nations) just have to accept the world has changed and make agreements with each other that achieve positive results for them.
While I despise Trump I do accept some of the issues he has focussed are legitimate and required action. This includes protecting borders much better. That is not to excuse the policy excesses. It seems some commentators hate Trump so much they won’t credit anything he does as having merit.
What Israel and the USA achieve in the Middle East is not easily predicted, other than turmoil and change. One positive side benefit is depriving Russia of drones to attack Ukraine, many of which come from Iran. The assault on Maduro and Venezuela is another negative for Putin.
The Gulf States will gain from Iran’s military capacity being degraded. However the ideology behind the Iranian authorities will not vanish nor will their ability to keep manufacturing and using drones etc to attack Gulf States, Israel and the USA. Nor can the Americans and Israelis be sure that Iran is permanently prevented from developing nuclear weapons. North Korea might help them if neither Russia nor China will.
Given his limited verbal dancing skills I recommend Luxon do the following:
With open ended media engagements such as Monday’s press conferences, he responds to the questions to the extent he can give a clear answer. If the same questions persist ask those attending if there is another topic.
If not say thank you and leave the stage.
With media appointments get his staff to negotiate the parameters of the engagement and stick to them. There is no law which says even the PM has to engage with media and play by their rules.
Establish your own rules and stick to them.
Barrie Saunders has a background in Government Relations and blogs at www.barriesaunders.wordpress.com. - where this article was sourced.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for joining the discussion. Breaking Views welcomes respectful contributions that enrich the debate. Please ensure your comments are not defamatory, derogatory or disruptive. We appreciate your cooperation.