"It was over", they told us. "The numbers were done", they told us. "Tuesday night was it", they told us.
"There wasn’t a caucus meeting required". Wrong.
"Mark Mitchell was Erica Stanford's deputy". Wrong.
"The idea that Luxon could do this twice was impossible". Wrong.
One of the great sadnesses of the modern media and its lack of institutional knowledge is too many people talk to themselves, or don’t recognise when their sources are stitching them up, or they put too much of their own agenda into the coverage.
This is not to say Luxon didn’t have trouble and that members of the National caucus weren't whining. But it is to say that that doesn’t mean when push comes to shove you pull a trigger on what almost certainly was a gargantuan political mistake.
To repeat from yesterday; the polls are fine, Luxon's issues are not sackable, and the economy is turning. The S&P just upgraded our GDP for God's sake.
This is no time to panic, and this is no time to put your burgeoning aspirations as a backbencher to the test.
I'm thrilled for Christopher Luxon. He deserves a lot better than he has got. The foibles, if you want to put them like that, are not sackable offences.
The fact Peters last time, and Seymour this time, spoke well of what he has done in a tricky first-of-its-kind coalition deal is not to be underestimated.
Oh the irony that opponents can see what his backbencher moaners can't.
This is not and was not a crisis. This was a self-centred, naval gazing, bitchathon from National MPs who should know how to behave better.
Remember where you heard it first – when National win and the Coalition enter the second term, and the Luxon era of leadership issues vanishes, because that’s what happens with victory, it will be a moment to savour.
The easy thing for Luxon to do would have been to walk, and a lot would have.
Belief is a sadly rare, but powerful trait and whatever you say about him he clearly has it.
Staring them down for a second time might just be the nail in their coffin.
He is a better man than they.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
"The idea that Luxon could do this twice was impossible". Wrong.
One of the great sadnesses of the modern media and its lack of institutional knowledge is too many people talk to themselves, or don’t recognise when their sources are stitching them up, or they put too much of their own agenda into the coverage.
This is not to say Luxon didn’t have trouble and that members of the National caucus weren't whining. But it is to say that that doesn’t mean when push comes to shove you pull a trigger on what almost certainly was a gargantuan political mistake.
To repeat from yesterday; the polls are fine, Luxon's issues are not sackable, and the economy is turning. The S&P just upgraded our GDP for God's sake.
This is no time to panic, and this is no time to put your burgeoning aspirations as a backbencher to the test.
I'm thrilled for Christopher Luxon. He deserves a lot better than he has got. The foibles, if you want to put them like that, are not sackable offences.
The fact Peters last time, and Seymour this time, spoke well of what he has done in a tricky first-of-its-kind coalition deal is not to be underestimated.
Oh the irony that opponents can see what his backbencher moaners can't.
This is not and was not a crisis. This was a self-centred, naval gazing, bitchathon from National MPs who should know how to behave better.
Remember where you heard it first – when National win and the Coalition enter the second term, and the Luxon era of leadership issues vanishes, because that’s what happens with victory, it will be a moment to savour.
The easy thing for Luxon to do would have been to walk, and a lot would have.
Belief is a sadly rare, but powerful trait and whatever you say about him he clearly has it.
Staring them down for a second time might just be the nail in their coffin.
He is a better man than they.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
6 comments:
Luxon won nothing but to keep the title "Prime Minister" for at least 3 more months. That's it.
Do not delude yourself his caucus support him. Probably more than half will barely go through the motions but have an eye on the door when National inevitably lose support. Why? Because when your leader is a flop, it's hard to see a bright future.
The only novel thing we saw was finally, excruciatingly, that he actually stands for something. And that's the title Prime Minister before his name.
Mike, I really wish I could share your confidence. Luxon to me is just so uninspiring. Yes I think he has done a great job holding a coalition together, not denying that and that is a great skill
But he has avoided so many things we all want dealt with. Maorification, treaty, maori seats, local govt, electricity market, supermarkets, too much is just too hard for national and it is costing them votes.
The NZ$ is just a disgrace and is causing all our local produce to be unaffordable in our own country
And his suits don’t fit.
Is Luxons refusal to talk about Maorification a huge part of the problem ?
Will he even talk about it within Caucus ?
I suspect it is, with his bullying, shutting out people who don't agree with him ..
Ask Andrew Bayley.
There are some great (and some not so great) commentators featured on Breaking Views, but in my opinion, Mike is in the upper echelon. Most of the others got sucked in by the media's relentless portrayal of Chris Luxon's harmless musings as "gaffes" and joined the throngs of the brainwashed. The media are still disingenuously reporting that Luxon has ruled out collaborating with the Opportunity Party and is committed to hold a referendum on MMP after the election, none of which are remotely true if you read what he actually said, and yet most of the commentators are now toeing that line as well. Yes we are all disappointed that National have kowtowed to the fickle swing voters and chickened out of reversing woke policies, but that simply makes Luxon a pragmatist, not a moron. We do need to send a message to National, and the best way to achieve that is to party vote ACT or NZF. But let's not run around like headless chooks or vent our spleens just because the infantile news media want us to.
The core problem is not the PM. The problem is deeply engrained in the Party itself. John Key did the country no favours and he was popular. Look at the track record over time. The nature of the problem is systemic within the Party. Change the leadership and the underlying problem remains all the same.
Change the govt and the underlying problem remains all the same. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. And we wonder how we got to where we are today. Decades of overall decline and decay. No one wants to own it. No one has the will, integrity, fortitude and wisdom to correct it.
NZ needs to chart a completely different course and leave all the baggage, failure and poor governance behind. NZs terminal illness is poor governance. The path is one of overall decline and decay perpetuated by our govts of whatever stripe. The cycle continues under the present govt as it has under its predecessors. Perceived interludes are but an illusion as the underlying currents still flow in the same direction.
What everyone focuses on is the distraction, the misdirect, the theatre. All the while NZ continues to quietly slip away. Everyone claims enlightenment, yet no one can demonstrate it. So, NZs poor governance and decline continue. It is habitual and NZ is addicted.
Change the govt and the underlying problem remains all the same. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. And we wonder how we got to where we are today. Decades of overall decline and decay. No one wants to own it. No one has the will, integrity, fortitude and wisdom to correct it.
NZ needs to chart a completely different course and leave all the baggage, failure and poor governance behind. NZs terminal illness is poor governance. The path is one of overall decline and decay perpetuated by our govts of whatever stripe. The cycle continues under the present govt as it has under its predecessors. Perceived interludes are but an illusion as the underlying currents still flow in the same direction.
What everyone focuses on is the distraction, the misdirect, the theatre. All the while NZ continues to quietly slip away. Everyone claims enlightenment, yet no one can demonstrate it. So, NZs poor governance and decline continue. It is habitual and NZ is addicted.
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