Fran O'Sullivan has asked some hard question of #Labour'sGotTalent contestant Shane Jones in her Herald column this morning. They are certainly harder questions than his ex-officio PR team of Messrs Garner, Gower and Espiner have asked to date.
And in fact Ms O'Sullivan's piece is such a compelling piece of reading that we are reproducing it in full; we will save our comments for the end, rather than interspersing them; here 'tis:
Why doesn't earthy Shane Jones just come out and say it? "I'm not just another Labour 'soft cock'."
"I'm for big, bold economic policies to grow the economy"; "I'm against hitting 'rich pricks' with new taxes (after all some of my best friends are just that);" "I want new mines in Northland and gas fields in Taranaki - Labour's communist mates in the Greens don't know how to promote jobs ..." You get the drift?
All right, I apologise for the tasteless introduction, but listening to, watching and reading Shane Jones interviews can do that to a "gelding" (as we women are in the Jones lexicon), you know.
Those who know the unvarnished Jones find the political snow job he is currently orchestrating during his extended bromance with TV3 political editor Patrick Gower and 3rd Degree's Guyon Espiner andDuncan Garner is more than simply comical.
None of these journalists have faced Jones with anything even vaguely like the third degree. It's just been roll cameras; lap up the latest smutty porn-related allusions (such as Jones' comment "doing things in a soft fashion has never been really a failing of mine" on Wednesday night's road trip with Espiner to the North) and give the Labour leadership contender the kind of free ride political journalists sometimes do when the politician in question has a reputation for being a prime source.
The public now knows the open secret in political circles that Jones skipped out on his wife and seven kids for his "beauty queen".
But there was no real third degree from Espiner on how his family might have felt at being left behind to bear the embarrassment of him being publicly exposed for using his ministerial credit card to book porn movies, while Jones wandered off into the sunset.
This was disappointing as Espiner has a hard-won journalistic reputation.
Those of us who appreciate real television current affairs tune in to his Wednesday night programme to escape the mindless dross served up by TVNZ's 7 Sharp. But this week's effort did not cut it.
Jones deserves to be strongly grilled on where he really sits on major economic issues facing New Zealand. After all the chances are he will end up with a top slot on Labour's front bench and a prime shadow portfolio as a kiss-off if he doesn't win the leadership race against David Cunliffe and Grant Robertson.
Before politics, he held senior public sector roles in the Ministry for the Environment and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. But he was best known for his chairmanship of the Waitangi Fisheries Commission (Te Ohu Kaimoana).
Yesterday's media carried reports on Jones' graphic allusions to what he plans to do to the Prime Minister: "I'm going to tie a bungy cord around a sensitive spot and then I'm going to get those callipers and cut them and then the mercenary of capitalism can suffer what he deserves - a dead cat bounce."
All said with nary a blush that Jones himself could have been described as just such a mercenary back in the day when Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark turned a blind eye while he collected $70,000 a year as chairman of Te Ohu Kaimoana, on top of the $130,000 he earned as a Labour MP and chairman of Parliament's finance and expenditure select committee.
Get under his skin and dig deep enough and the journalists might just expose Jones as a politician of contradictions and considerable subterfuge.
But right now he is simply "too good in the copy stakes" for that to happen.
I was intrigued at how some journalists bought the story that he was the hapless David Shearer's friend and loyal to the previous leader's bitter end. But anyone who had heard Jones morosely talk of his real feelings towards Shearer after the Labour leader stood him down during the Auditor-General investigation which touched on his previous ministerial dealings would have an entirely opposite perspective.
One area where Jones has considerable political utility for Labour is his relationship with NZ First's Winston Peters. Both politicians are social animals.
But New Zealand women? Like former Labour Cabinet minister John Tamihere with his slags against the "front-bums", he could do with exhibiting some respect.
This week he said that he had always found that was very popular with women.
"I've never been at the top of the hit parade with feminists. But the women I want to appeal to are the women that read the Woman's Weekly, not Germaine Greer."
A straw vote of New Zealand women would say different.
There are some fascinating insights in this piece. Despite the fact that David Shearer has endorsed Jones, the MP seems to he holding a grudge against his former leader for his treatment over the Bill Liu saga, from which Jones was lucky to emerge at all.Jones' position on mining and drilling is at odds with Labour's official stance. A few weeks ago he and Andrew Little met with oil and gas people in Taranaki, and the reported messages coming out of that meeting were very different to what Labour and the Greens regularly recite in the House. Jones is pragmatic enough to see the wealth and jobs that have been created in Taranaki, and want that for elsewhere in New Zealand. That immediately sets him apart from Messrs Robertson and Cunliffe.Mediaworks has certainly given Jones a soft run so far, and we suspect that they see it as a ratings winner for TV3 and RadioLive. They have certainly aligned themselves with the bloke from the far North than with either Cunliffe or Robertson. It was no surprise therefore that Jones did surprisingly well in last night's 3News poll.Shane Jones would be a theatrical opponent for John Key, but we wonder how deep he goes beneath the surface. And that creates a dilemma for those voting on the Labour leadership. Jones may have the potential to draw people back to Labour, including Waitakere Man and his mates. But is he in it for the long haul, and do the rumours that he has a pretty cavalier approach to detail and long hours of work have any substance?
Fran O'Sullivan has done the right thing by asking the hard questions that others have not. And those "others" might want to reveal what their motives are in promoting Jones so unashamedly.
Fran O'Sullivan adds her 10 cents worth to the various opinions expressed in the wake of Wednesday night's Campbell Live John-off:
These days we have Seven Sharp where journalists are often reduced to bimbo status and are too wrapped up making fillers to give sustained focus on the big issues of the day, such as the Fonterra food scare or, for that matter, the GCSB legislation.
Campbell Live certainly can't be accused of that.
But John Campbell has become so involved in the thrust of his crusades that when he was finally presented with the opportunity this week to interview the Prime Minister on the GCSB bill, he was blindsided by John Key's fluency and not sufficiently prepared to sustain 20 minutes of primetime television without coming very close indeed to throwing his toys out of the cot.
I don't for one moment believe that Key is the product of his press minders or media training, as left-wing commentators claim.
I've watched him make many apparent off-the-cuff speeches at countless business conferences and dinners where he exhibits a fine ability to combine humour (at times demonstrating a larrikin nature) with firm messages about the Government's policy framework, keen insights into New Zealanders' responses to domestic issues and the ability to flatter his audiences by sharing top-level communications on international matters.
People who believe he is slumped in some brain-fade fog have not studied the politician.
But overpreparation does not suit him. He is better at making what appears to be an impromptu speech rather than reading a statesman-like speech where he can take oxygen from his audience.
When he does prepare too much he comes up with dreadfully overwrought phrases (the Norton Anti-Virus analogy for the GCSB this week; Fonterra being New Zealand's poster-child for safe food last week).
What Key does do is study leadership.
He has spent many hours watching tapes of the way other leaders have dealt with opponents in major political debates.
Would that Campbell had done the same.
But the TV3 host's disorganisation was immediately apparent from the shuffled papers displayed in front of him rather than a laptop, clipboard (or preferably no notes at all).
But while Key may have come to the interview with no notes, he would certainly have worked out a gameplan in his head on how he would control Campbell and get across the story he wished to tell.
One little verbal joust said it all.
Key: "You've done so many stories which are absolute nonsense, and you know they are and I've actually answered those in the past ..."
Campbell: "Prime Minister, feel free to sue us, go to the BSA, make a formal complaint."
Key: "I don't bother complaining because when you weave your web and do all those little things ..."
You only had to look at Campbell's face to see he realised he had effectively been told to go and sit on the naughty stool.
The most interesting aspect here is Fran O'Sullivan's dismissal of the Left's oft-repeated allegation that John Key is "the product of his press minders or media training". She has probably seen enough of the PM in action both in New Zealand and offshore to make that call.We've heard the PM in person several times, and on each occasion he has spoken without notes, and largely off-the-cuff. His command on details, especially in regard to economic issues though is impressive.John Key is nobody's fool, despite what you might read at The Standard or the Daily Blog (which we generally choose not to). Those who underestimate him do so at their own risk; just ask John Campbell.
CTU leader and Labour Party aspirant Helen Kelly jumps the shark and makes the Fonterra contamination situation a political issue. And her dog-whistle brought out a couple of supporters:This is, of course, not an issue caused by the Government, but that won't stop the likes of Helen Kelly having a crack. In fact thus far the response from Ministers and their officials has been exemplary, with a huge amount of work having been done over the weekend to reassure our trading partners that this is very much an isolated issue. Both veteran business journalist Rod Oram and TVNZ's Corin Dann, both of whom lean to the left by varying amounts acknowledged that last night.
It does make you wonder what Helen Kelly's agenda is though, given that this is a serious issue for New Zealand. Her opportunism contrasts strongly with the dignified silence maintained to date by Opposition politicians.
Fran O'Sullivan mixes at a pretty high level in the business community. Her Linkedin profile shows that she is far more that "just" a newspaper columnist.
So when she writes this morning about David Shearer's lack of cut-through with the business community, you can be sure that she is not just presenting an opinion held by her and no-one else; she begins:
David Shearer should be personally disappointed that many of the nation's top chief executives do not believe he has yet demonstrated the right stuff to credibly challenge the Key Government.
There is a yawning gap that Labour could fill if it could get some concerted focus on contemporary issues such as housing, the Christchurch earthquake rebuild and youth unemployment, distance itself from the Greens and present itself as the lead player in a potential government in waiting.
But right now its own leader is too often over-shadowed by the aggressive and media savvy Greens co-leaders Russel Norman and Metiria Turei. And chief executives - who want to be confident that if there is a change of government at the 2014 election that an established party will be in the box seat - have concerns.
It's no surprise that the business community has strong concerns about the involvement of the Greens in any future government, especially in an economic portfolio. The New Zealand economy is in recovery, but it is still relatively fragile. The Greens' brand of economic medicine could kill that recovery stone dead.
But back to David Shearer. 95% of the 118 CEO's surveyed didn't feel that he was performing as Labour leader. And as Ms O'Sullivan reports, he's actually gone backwards:
In the Herald's Mood of the Boardroom CEOs' Survey last year, Shearer was still on his trainer wheels as Labour's leader.
Some 90 per cent of chief executives said then he hadn't made a dent in John Key's leadership.
And that was fair enough. They - like other New Zealanders - had expectations he would need time to settle into the role. Particularly as the neophyte leader had not even been blooded sufficiently within the parliamentary bearpit before his colleagues elected him to take Phil Goff's place.
This year, even more CEOs surveyed by the Herald said Shearer's performance had still not been credible enough to challenge the National Government.
It is important that the leader of a major political party like Labour can engender confidence among the bosses of New Zealand's larger companies that he (or she) is up to the challenge of taking on the Government on issues that matter.
For one thing it leads to better policy. Two former Cabinet ministers (now businessmen) have reflected to me since the 2013 survey came out on Thursday, how important it is for the government of the day to be challenged by a competent Opposition which can pull them up on issues that matter and suggest modifications to important legislation.
It also makes the government of the day work just that much harder.
Fran O'Sullivan is dead right here; the role of an effective Opposition in our democracy cannot be overstated. But at the moment, the Greens and even NZ First are doing a more effective job than Labour,which is supposedly the biggest Opposition party, with MP's with a wealth of experience both in government and opposition. But Labour in 2013 is lacking in direction and leadership, and that is being borne out in the polls, all of which now have Labour and David Shearer on a downward trend. There is still considerable debate over whether Labour learned anything from its defeat in 2008 and its worst result in 60 years in 2011, or whether the party believes that the voters will eventually see that their rejection of Labour was just a mistake.Then after addressing areas where Labour could be focusing, and questioning the haste with which Phil Goff was thrown on the scrapheap Fran O'Sullivan reaches her close. And with it comes the almost inevitable question-mark over the security of David Shearer's tenure of the Labour Party leadership:What makes it even harder for Shearer is that New Zealand is now in much better shape. Companies are making more money and more of them now plan to hire more staff. The country is finally much more confident and resilient.
But there are also some issues where Key's Government has been slow and offer options for Labour to drive some wedges in National's popularity. Auckland housing pressures are one; the Canterbury rebuild needs to step up the pace on the major projects front; youth unemployment initiatives are another.
The big challenge for Shearer will be stopping National from covering off such issues first (that's if he can hold on to his job).
We've heard from numerous sources on both sides of the political divide that the week commencing Monday 5th August might be a difficult one for David Shearer. Others are suggesting that nothing will happen before the Labour Party conference in November. Whichever, David Shearer must articulate his and Labour's vision for New Zealand to business leaders if he expects to have their support should he ever become Prime Minister.
Fran O'Sullivan's opinion-piece in this morning's Herald is worth a read in its entirety. But this bit really stood out: Labour's Auckland issues spokesman, Phil Twyford, was yesterday reduced to carping about the cost of the city's transport projects and complaining that the timing for some of the construction was still vague.
"The Prime Minister is talking about a $10 billion commitment to three projects but in his speech he was completely silent about how he is going to pay for them.
"Where on earth is the money coming from?"
Key could have said "You work it out chump, I'm unlikely to be PM by the time a future New Zealand Government has to seriously put its hands in its pockets".
But he later confined himself to telling journalists it could come from various sources, including (take that, Labour!) the Future Investment Fund, into which his Government is tucking the proceeds of its partial privatisation programme; the Land Transport Fund, which holds the proceeds of petrol excise tax and road-user charges; taxpayers through the Consolidated Fund and even the private sector through some nifty public/private sector partnerships (PPPs).
What Key didn't say - and won't until the Government has surety on the numbers - is that the fiscal track is on an upswing and there is a strong possibility Finance Minister Bill English will be able to post a Budget surplus well before 2014/2015 (some Beehive insiders suggest the surplus milestone could be reached even by the end of this year, though that looks optimistic).
When I put the question to him down at the media scrum at SkyCity's conference centre, Key deftly sidestepped it.
But he later conceded that getting government debt down to under 20 per cent of GDP would be the next priority.
In other words, yes, the fiscal track is moving very nicely, thank you.
It must be excruciatingly dreadful for Labour.
Its "show me the money" challenge (delivered without the panache that Key used to slaughter former Labour leader Phil Goff during a debate at the last election) fell flat. Its party strategists know that pushing that line of questioning simply risks Labour being seen as churlish.
But what really galls the Opposition is the fact that Key has stolen Labour's thunder, particularly in Auckland.
Key is now "besties" not only with Auckland Mayor Len Brown, who was positively radiant as he openly rejoiced yesterday that the Government was "backing Auckland", but also with Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker.
Brown will pocket Key's commitment as an endorsement of his own mayoralty, given that he based his first run at the top job on delivering three big-ticket, next-generation transport projects.
And Christchurch mayoral challenger and Labour MP Lianne Dalziel was reduced to complaining from the sidelines as Key and Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee cosied up publicly with Parker to announce agreement had been reached on $4.8 billion of investment in Christchurch - $2.9 billion of it coming from the Crown and $1.9 billion committed by the Christchurch City Council - so that projects like the new stadium and a convention centre can proceed.
Key couldn't resist having a flick at Labour during yesterday's stand-up, telling reporters he could understand why the public wasn't warming to Labour because it was "too negative".
What John Key has announced in Christchurch and Auckland in successive days this week is incredibly clever politics. Those on the Left who deride Key as a political lightweight have been left with an entire omelette on their faces.Key may not have spent his entire adult life frequenting the same smoke-filled back rooms and union halls that they have, weighing up everything from a political perspective. But that does not mean that the Prime Minister is any less skilled at the Dark Arts of politics as they pride themselves on being.
Labour has been out-boxed this week. The public now knows exactly which of the big-ticket items in Christchurch will proceed, and who is paying for what. And a blueprint has been laid out for huge investment both in roading and in public transport in Auckland over the next 15-20 years. John Key has even been canny enough to leave room for the CBD rail loop to come on-stream sooner should growth in the Auckland CBD happen faster than anticipated.
And as O'Sullivan notes, "the fiscal track is moving very nicely, thank you"; excellent news indeed. What a coup it would be for the PM if the fiscal track had moved along so nicely that Bill English was able to announce a small budget surplus for 2013-14, instead of 2014-15, as forecast. We certainly wouldn't bet against it.
This has been National's week on centre stage; of that there is no doubt whatsoever. We wonder if those 65 days until the beginning of spring can't come around soon enough for David Shearer.
