We’d love to chat with the likely next prime minister, but so far he’s declined. The invitation is open.
Chris Hipkins has Covid-19, which has meant a campaign rejig for Labour and a protracted squabble with Christopher Luxon about who is quitting the Press debate and who isn’t.
The National leader is certainly a busy man. Luxon has declined to do a campaign interview with Moana Maniapoto for Te Ao with Moana. He has declined invitations to talk to Stuff chief political correspondent Tova O’Brien for her series of leader interviews. He has turned down requests for an interview with Mihingarangi Forbes on Mata. And he has declined invitations to be interviewed by the Spinoff both for the site and on the Gone By Lunchtime podcast.
The invitation is open, Mr Luxon. Maybe you could talk to us all as a job lot? Our audiences would love to hear from you.
In the latest, luckless, Luxonless episode of the Spinoff politics podcast, Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire also tackle an extraordinary week of Winston Peters, walking on air and dispatching, even by his own standards, an astonishing barrage of bombast and belligerence in media interviews.
Plus: Parts of the campaign have gotten ugly – how bad is it, and are politicians responsible? A clutch of new polls point to tight races in Auckland Central, Tāmaki, and Hauraki Waikato. And we consider the plausibility of two scenarios currently at the centre of speculation: a “teal deal” governing arrangement between National and the Greens; and National giving the nod to Top in Ilam in pursuit of electoral “insurance”.
And, with early voting under way, how are we feeling about the campaign? In an election dominated by the cost of living crisis, many were “playing to our ugliest side”, said Lee-Mather, leaving people “looking for someone to blame and express their anger and resentment towards”.
Thomas put it like this: “This is really the most dead behind the eyes election I can remember, in terms of the lack of a bigger vision, but also the way that politicians are saying their lines, perfunctorily as they always do, but this time it’s so hard to believe any of them even mean it.”
Ten days to go!
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