PETER WILLIAMS: Luxon lacks courage

Backing out of interviews is poor form

Any politician who refuses to front on a particular media outlet essentially because he or she is afraid of being made to look foolish is, frankly, a coward and not competent to be in a position of responsibility.

It’s into that category that we must now place the current Prime Minister. We know that Jacinda Ardern was already a certified member.

Christopher Luxon has cancelled his regular appearances on TVNZ Breakfast after being hopelessly ill-prepared for a predictable barrage of aggressive questioning on a trivial topic from Tova O’Brien. He is also a regular decliner of interview requests on the country’s only current affairs show Q and A. He’s never appeared as Prime Minister on the on-line outlet The Platform where he’s sure to be interrupted and talked over by breakfast host Sean Plunket who’d probably want to interview him aggressively about why his government hasn’t removed co-governance provisions from local government and new water entities.

Luxon and his new minder Simeon Brown say they’ve pulled the pin because some TVNZ political staff were asking questions in an area at parliament off limits to the media, and then reportedly threatening to besmirch a National MP for not answering those questions.

If true, that’s unacceptable behaviour and the Speaker, as the boss of the parliamentary precinct, should deal with it. For Luxon, through Brown, to throw a hissy fit and quit a previously regular media appearance is childish.

Ardern, you remember, quit her regular appearances on Mike Hosking’s Newstalk ZB breakfast show when he pointed out to her the difference between GDP and CPI and made her look a fool on economic matters. He was just pointing out the obvious.

I had two and half years as a host on a radio station called Magic Talk. Ardern was Prime Minister the entire time. Despite numerous requests from me and my producer she didn’t appear on the show once, not even during the 2020 election campaign.

Her mate Grant Robertson came on once a week until he had a dummy spit because I asked him about the World Economic Forum’s Great Reset. He reckoned it was conspiracy theory. I don’t think it was but the WEF has reduced influence anyway now.

Maybe Ardern didn’t think our ratings were worth the time. Actually they were better than Newstalk ZB in a few provincial markets so I never knew quite what her problem was. I didn’t lose any sleep over it but thought it was a very arrogant attitude to take to the audience we had.

I feel exactly the same about Luxon chickening out of TVNZ’s Breakfast and The Platform. If you want your message to resonate with the public use the media – broadcast and on-line - to reach them.

Other politicians and parties are not blameless either. Act reputedly won’t go on RNZ’s Morning Report because of the attitude of staff toward them when they appear in person on the premises. No doubt they’re not too enamoured either of the aggressive line of questioning they usually encounter when they’re on-air.

An Act staffer once called about what they could do about RNZ’s attitude towards them. I suggested they get some significant change at board level. After all, they’re part of the appointing government. There were vacancies advertised for the RNZ board in February this year. It’s nearly May. There still haven’t been any appointments. The terms of the chair and two other directors expire on June 30.

But if politicians want to progress in their public careers, the best way to prove how able, principled and disciplined they are, is to take the good with the bad. Luxon should show more courage and not resist the hard line of questioning that would come from Tova O’Brien and Sean Plunket. Be prepared to get on the front foot, know what you stand for, be knowledgeable across a wide range of portfolios and most importantly, know who voted for you and what those voters want you to do. It’s not too hard. You campaigned on it and negotiated two coalition agreements.

The New Zealand political media will never be enchanted by Christopher Luxon. But he can show more fortitude by not running from the fight. He should be better briefed. He shouldn’t resort to corny one liners from his “talking points.” He has to be authentic. Provide evidence he has political conviction. Right now he’s not.

And if you want inspiration about how to hose down an aggressive interviewer watch John Key v John Campbell on Campbell Live in 2013 on the proposed GCSB legislation. The Herald’s Colin Hogg said Campbell was humiliated. Even Campbell himself said that Key was “absolutely brilliant.” That was a Prime Minister well briefed and thoroughly prepared on a fractious issue.

Yes, Key had been Prime Minister for 5 years by then and well experienced in the role. But despite his many failings on the policy front (the flag referendum, the UNDRIP signing) Key was a master in front of a TV camera. I saw plenty of it first hand when he made his weekly appearances on Breakfast in 2009-2016 era. We often chatted in the corner of the studio while he was waiting to be interviewed. Often it was about golf, sometimes it was politics. He never had a media minder with him. The DPS men lurked in the corridor outside, the limo waited in the basement beside the lift. But he was a natural as a politician because he had command of issues and had an answer to the criticism he knew was coming his way.

I remember the morning he’d had the word Labour were going to blow the whistle on the illegal GCSB spying of Kim Dotcom before the infamous raid in 2012. His line to me in the corner of the studio that morning was “the shit’s going to hit the fan today.” It did, but he was ready for it, didn’t deny he knew more that he’d previously let on, absorbed the criticism and became more popular than ever.

You could never see Luxon cope with a scenario was well as that. He’d go to ground, issue written statements and then fudge answers at a press conference later in the day.

He’s hired former TV and radio journalist and presenter Rachel Smalley to lift his media game. She has an unenviable task. Luxon is not politically smart the way Key or Helen Clark or Ardern was, nor a natural TV performer. There was hint of Smalley’s influence with his bold appearance after hosing down the leadership coup and reporting the vote of confidence his caucus had given him. He refused to answer questions afterwards. That was smart.

But his statement should have included the word “unanimous” in reference to the vote of confidence. By not, he opened up even more speculation.

Luxon needs to learn to give as good as he gets. His appearances with Hosking are usually pretty boring. That’s because neither will indulge in much beyond economic matters. He should reconsider the Breakfast ban. He should front on The Platform.

In the immortal words of John Key himself in Parliament in 2015, Luxon should “get some guts.”

Writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines although verbalising thoughts on Reality Check Radio three days a week and writing at Peter's substack