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Christopher Luxon’s recent and forevermore memorable Hawaiian holiday has once again left him exposed in the high-beam headlights. Did he do wrong? No. At first glance, he took a holiday with his family, as he is entitled to do.
But what he did do wrong was to leave a false trail of breadcrumbs on social media to obscure his real whereabouts. A trail that in the end, led right to the front door of the witch’s house.
This is all as reported in Australia.
“National party leader Christopher Luxon travelled to Hawaii last week for a week-long family holiday during a parliamentary recess.”
“His social media said otherwise, with Mr Luxon declaring in a video posted on Thursday “Today I’m in Te Puke, the heart of kiwifruit country”.
“In a political blunder Australians will find familiar, New Zealand’s opposition leader has gone on holiday in Hawaii while telling Kiwis he was at work back home.”
“He denied misleading Kiwis, blaming a miscommunication with his social media team.”
“I take responsibility for it,” he said.
“We made a mistake. We own up to it, we front it. We should have captioned the post differently.”
NZ’s Luxon in Hawaii holiday blunder | Shepparton News (sheppnews.com.au)
NZ’s Luxon in Hawaii holiday blunder | Shepparton News (sheppnews.com.au)
His social media team knew exactly where he was, so why blame a “miscommunication” with them as the reason his whereabouts were deliberately fudged and revealed only when the proverbial cat was out of its Facebook bag?
He was thus unmasked (shock horror – just as well he was not a school pupil) and forced to answer questions in the House that should not have needed to have been asked. Recess. His holiday. His choice. But perception is everything and he knows that – presumably the reason he left the false trail.
But then the big bad wolf of both public opinion and the gleeful Labour party, thrilled beyond measure to have an issue they really could get their teeth into, got into the game. Forget the housing crisis, the submissions against Three Waters, the tumbledown cottage of the health service and its do-little landlord, the plasterboard rort, the price of cheese, the cost-of-living crisis, the price of fuel; no, Luxon’s holiday scooped the pool.
While Little Red Riding Hood, our PM, did not criticise Luxon, Grant Robertson, the court jester, did not hold back, accusing him of dishonesty.
The damage was not about the obfuscated jolly jaunt (in John Key’s house screamed the Labour luvvies on Facebook, which was refuted by Christopher Luxon) but by eclipsing the business of the day and it
“[…] overshadowed his party’s announcement on Tuesday, a proposed inquiry into the Reserve Bank for its stimulatory response to COVID-19 lockdowns.”
“We’ve got a government which is addicted to spending and we’ve had an unprecedented amount of printing of cash by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand,” he said.
“It’s put a heap of cash into the New Zealand economy and I think it’s right we call for a an independent public inquiry.”
NZ’s Luxon in Hawaii holiday blunder | Shepparton News (sheppnews.com.au)
All of which is absolutely correct, so why, oh why, give away the opportunity to hammer the message home and instead give the Labour party the upper-hand instead of an upper-cut?
It was also reported in the UK
WORLD NEWS
“Christopher Luxon: ‘Hard at work’ politician was on holiday in Hawaii
“When New Zealand’s opposition leader posted a video on social media of himself meeting “hardworking Kiwis” at a sawmill on Thursday, he appeared to be hard at work himself, drumming up support in the country’s north island before elections next year.”
But Christopher Luxon, the National Party leader, has been forced to apologise for suggesting he was campaigning when he was actually on holiday in Hawaii.”
Christopher Luxon: ‘Hard at work’ politician was on holiday in Hawaii | News | The Times
His obscured holiday was world news. Not the parlous state of the country, the inexorable march to tribal rule, the one just above Kuwait as the desirable place to live – never mind any of that, the real news is that the leader of our opposition was not where he ‘said’ he was.
And Patrick Gower too had fun and
[…] “delighted his fans by aiming a “deliciously petty” wisecrack at Christoper Luxon after the Opposition leader became embroiled in ‘kiwifruit-gate’ on Tuesday.”
“A video shared to Luxon’s social media during his overseas trip featured the National Party leader declaring, “Today I’m in Te Puke, the heart of kiwifruit country”, with footage showing the politician meeting with local businesses, workers and volunteers. A picture also posted to his Instagram last week showed Luxon meeting with University of Auckland vice-chancellor, Dawn Freshwater. In reality, both of those visits had occurred the week prior.”
“While Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has refused to comment on kiwifruit-gate, Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson suggested it wasn’t a good look.
“I think a post that says you’re in Te Puke on a particular day published on a day when you’re actually in Hawaii is misleading,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
“When asked whether Luxon’s posts could be considered delusive, ACT Party leader David Seymour said: “The number one bit of advice I give to all of ACT’s MPs is be authentic, be real. Don’t pretend to be something you’re not and you’ll find you get a lot of support.”
“While Luxon initially denied that his social media had been misleading, on Tuesday afternoon he conceded to reporters that the posts should have been captioned differently – “to make it clear [the events were] in recent days, not on the day”. He noted that while his “social media team” had uploaded the posts in question, he took responsibility for the confusion.”
Gower’s ‘deliciously petty’ jab at Luxon’s kiwifruit-gate delights social media (msn.com)
When confronted with the issue, Luxon agreed that the captions should have been captioned differently. He still didn’t get it. And that is the real concern. That he does not know what he is doing. And neither, it seems, does his social media team. It was nice that he didn’t blame them directly, but now their reputation too is tarnished. Why would you deliberately mislead? Unless, of course, they have collectively worked out how to have him in two places simultaneously, because that is just what they did.
Luxon and his social media team deliberately misled the public. In and of itself, it is not really a hanging offence, but it makes the man look foolish and hands ammunition to other parties. Kiwifruit-gate will continue as a source of political mirth.
Since his appointment as Leader of the Opposition I have tried to give the man the benefit of the doubt, to show support. But with one political gaffe after another, it is getting more and more difficult to believe in him. It is hard to see how he will be able to reclaim those many disaffected National voters who may well decide to call time on his leadership and also the party for being so far from its founding principles.
