Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was.
There’s something very funny about the word frick. Perhaps it’s the Christian undertones, popularised by kids who were too god-fearing to say the bad f-word (but probably just god-fearing enough to say the other bad f-word). It might sound like a milder version of fuck but once you realise anyone saying frick is using every last ounce of their being to not say fuck, it becomes a whole lot more powerful.
This internal struggle played out on the face of prime minister Chris Luxon on Thursday during his press stand-up announcing 500 new police officers. Leading up to the moment, Luxon had stood alongside police minister Mark Mitchell, butting in and getting remarks in across Mitchell’s attempted answers. He was either not confident that Mitchell could answer adequately, or rarked up enough to need to say something.
When a reporter asked if removing gang members from the gang registry (eg people who are now deceased) was a clever way of “lowering” gang numbers, Luxon had had enough. He leaned over and said “it’s not about the fricken targets, it’s about outcomes”.
First of all, the government has been all about targets, so to balk at being asked about them is concerning. Second of all, is an outcome not a target and vice versa? In his next breath, Luxon specified that the desired outcome is lowering violent crime. Lowering violent crime is literally a government target.
But that’s all by the by. What I’m more interested in is frick. We’ve become so accustomed to prime ministers being almost errily calm and collected in front of the media. John Key could let a press conference run well over time and appear unconcerned by the barrage of questions. Jacinda Ardern was, frankly, frustratingly measured in her answers, no matter the topic. Even Bill English had figured out an approach that didn’t give too much away. But Luxon hasn’t.
From even before the election, it was clear he didn’t enjoy (who would?) being questioned by the media. Many assumed he would simply learn on the job and figure out his media persona but the opposite has happened. Luxon appears perpetually shocked that there are people whose whole job is to question his lovely announcements. In fact, on Newstalk ZB on Friday morning, Luxon was asked about his media appearances and use of Tiktok and other platforms that don’t include a journalist. Part of his reasoning was “we’ve got a press gallery in Wellington and the parliament. They sort of get very obsessed on the political stuff”.
The parliamentary press gallery is obsessed with asking about political stuff? An objectively crack up thing for the prime minister to say, but also unsurprising. On numerous occasions, Luxon has appeared visibly agitated by the routine questioning from reporters. Sometimes it results in an insultingly short press conference (just 15 minutes to discuss the royal commission’s final inquiry report into abuse in care). Other times it’s simply his terseness in responding.
And now it’s frick.
It may just be a word but in the context of Luxon’s increasing contempt for journalists and after nearly a full year of no improvement in his ability to calmly answer questions, I can only presume that it’s the top of a frickin slippery slope.
This week’s episode of Behind the Story
Bulletin editor Stewart Sowman-Lund has had a few roles in his time at the Spinoff, first as live updates editor, then reporter, and now as bulletin editor. Writing a bulletin every morning takes up plenty of his time, but he also specialises in following those random, one-off tips that every journalist gets. This week’s tip was from a man who had strangely been called by the police while driving, to tell him to stop using his phone while driving.
Stewart joined me on Behind the Story (now in video form!) to discuss writing in different formats, following a scent and dealing with feedback.
So what have readers spent the most time reading this week?
- Joel MacManus discovers his inner cartographer and draws up three all-new maps that demonstrate how Wellington’s bike network has grown
- Bonus content: based on popular demand, we’ve given his three excellent maps a Spinoff glow-up.
You can also find and share them on our Instagram and Twitter accounts.
- Alice Neville with an excellent deep dive into a pile of documents and a detailed look at the government’s beleaguered bid to reduce violent crime
- Max Rashbrooke asks whether David Seymour has ‘saved’ school lunches – or enshittified them?
- A public servant with a six-month-old baby and a quality coffee habit reveals their spending habits in this week’s Cost of Being
- Hayden Donnell gives up on aspirational transport projects that will actually happen in Auckland and declares, “Screw it, build Wayne Brown’s weird bridge”
Comments of the week
“I work in learning support in a school. The students are not failing Maths because the curriculum is poor. They are failing because of over crowded classrooms, because there’s not enough support for struggling students, because they’re hungry or cold, because they have to keep moving house and school, because their family is struggling with trauma or any number of other issues. Fix the system before the curriculum.”
— JRo
“As a boomer, I was brought up with free school lunches. In those days, many of our parents had to be off to the shops and factories, via public transport: preparing lunches for four children, when there were essentially no convenience foods was an extra burden. Moreover, with all the children receiving a lunch there was no stigma. Sadly, the food was chosen down to budget and badly cooked. Stupidly, there was always a pudding after, which only served to stimulate my generation’s sweet tooth. But the principle was decent.And I too, favour UBI.”
— Annie
Pick up where this leaves off
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