Claire Trevett Writes with a Red Font

In my last article, I made the point that I thought Maori were good navigators. This was in relation to Rawiri Waititi and his ill-considered remarks to do with replacing Valentine’s Day with Captain Cook Day. In effect, he wanted to replace celebrating love with celebrating murder and cannibalism. I suggested he risked navigating his waka into a storm of his own making.

I have reflected on my previous article because, just as Maori are renowned for their navigational skills, political journalists should be renowned for their political nous. Not so Claire Trevett. Her article in the Weekend Herald of February 11 was titled – How does Luxon counter PM’s clever politics? Evidently, Hipkins’ start leaves the Nats flat-footed but it’s their move now according to Claire.

The problem with journalists who write or speak with a red glow is they can be too easily countered. Even if we accept that what Claire says is true (which I for one don’t), what she says can be rewritten to more accurately reflect her musings.

Claire thinks Hipkins is being clever by ditching policies that were unpopular. That’s one side of the coin. The other side of the same coin is that here we have a PM ridding himself of policies HE SUPPORTED as a Cabinet Minister.

Claire of course didn’t want to shine a light on the hypocrisy in that. While the policies certainly needed to be gone, it is hardly clever stuff. It actually shows both him and the Labour Government in a bad light and it also says he will do anything, no matter how blatant, to win the upcoming election. One could easily bring his principles into question. Not Claire though. She says by the time it came to unveiling any actual announcements, it was being called his policy “purge” and a “bonfire of policies”.

The “purge” and “bonfire of policies” descriptions are worth looking at because it was nothing of the sort.

He scrapped the TVNZ/RNZ merger which neither those involved nor the public wanted, referred the hated hate speech legislation to the Law Commission for further study, and put the income insurance scheme on the back burner. These are not the actions of a clever man but rather actions that reflect the deviousness that is rampant in left-wing politics.

He has demoted Nanaia Mahuta in a show of supposed strength, and introduced her to an aeroplane, something foreign to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He then promoted Willie Jackson, a bear of very little brain (no doubt simply to appease the Maori Caucus).

There is nothing clever in all of this. What we are seeing is a man wriggling and squirming to rid himself of a mess he is partly responsible for. The real test of his ability as a leader is yet to come. Three/Five Waters and the tram to the airport are two contentious issues still to be dealt with.

In answer to Claire’s question as to how Luxon can counter Hipkins’ so-called clever politics, the answer is: ‘Quite easily’. As per what I’ve stated above, Luxon needs to grill Hipkins as to why he is ditching policies he supported while a Minister. He needs to publicly talk about Labour’s hypocrisy and unashamed devious tactics to win the election at all costs. He should highlight the lack of principle involved. That’s before he even starts on the many things that have contributed to their abject failure as a government.

What Claire needs to realise is that in reality, his strategy is the opposite of clever. Bearing in mind the rocky year ahead economically, now exacerbated by cyclone Gabrielle, Hipkins in terms of the election, is already starting to look like a turkey voting himself an early Christmas. Rather than the baubles of office, he might be left with only the ones on the tree.

It would be helpful if Claire removed her red-tinted glasses when writing as they tend to mask any understanding of politics she, as a political reporter, might possess.