David Farrar: Labour shoots itself again

Do you remember Chris Hipkins complaining National hadn’t consulted Labour over NCEA changes, and then it transpired their spokesperson had turned down multiple offers from the Minister to brief her.

Well they’ve done it again. Chris Bishop writes:

Chris Hipkins tried (and failed) to get a story up this morning in advance of his weekly media interviews, with his office claiming to TVNZ that we had failed to respond to a Labour MP’s concerns about the Waioweka Gorge. You might remember last year when he claimed the Government had failed to engage with Labour about NCEA changes, only for the facts to show we had tried several times and Labour had failed to respond.

Now it’s happened again.

Yesterday, before Hipkins’ weekly interview, Labour sent a letter about Waioweka Gorge that Jo Luxton had written to me back in January to TVNZ’s Breakfast, telling the producer that I hadn’t bothered to reply.

Unfortunately for Hipkins, a long email trail shows that’s just totally untrue.

Jo Luxton did write to me in late January, seeking a briefing from NZTA on recovery works through SH2 Waioweka Gorge. I take all letters from MPs seriously, so I asked my office to arrange a briefing for her.

A staff member emailed Ms Luxton on 18 February to organise the briefing. She didn’t reply, so he followed up a week later.

Eventually 4 March was settled on for her briefing, which she then cancelled as she was unwell.

The briefing eventually took place on 18 March, covered all the issues Ms Luxton had asked to be briefed on, and a staff member followed up on a couple of issues afterwards with her. Ms Luxton’s staff member sent a nice thank you message to my office afterwards.

So why is Chris Hipkins out there telling TVNZ that I never responded?

You think they would have learnt.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition