In the homestretch of the coldest of political winters, we gathered. There was a defiance about this Mataariki – more than ever, folks were determined to come together, celebrate, farewell and reflect.
And just when we thought it was time to go back out into the brutal cold, Jack Tame said “wait, come back, I have something for you”.
He sat us by the fire, poured us a glass of pinot, and deftly filleted Paul Henry, tableside, on live TV… I’m sure I could hear the dulcet tunes of “Poi e” in the background.
It was a degustation of delights. I felt sated, but light… giddy, almost.
Over the following 17 minutes, Paul Henry, broadcaster of 40 years, ACT’s new legislative candidate and David Seymour’s golden campaign hope:
- Confessed in the first 30 seconds that he’s not that keen on being a legislator
- Spent the rest of the interview repeating that he’s also not keen to discuss policy, either
- Declared that ACT (a party that spent the best part of the last decade pushing themselves as practical and rubbishing everyone else as ideological) want to run the country on a “vibe” (at which point I’m sure David Seymour’s soul left his body).
- Admitted that he has zero ideas on how to deal with New Zealand’s domestic media market being gutted by overseas interests
- Suggested that the issue of advertisers flocking to international platforms is being resolved by “more and more” advertisers changing to domestic platforms
- Conceded that he didn’t really “turn TVNZ around” as he recently claimed, but that he was a part of turning it around, but that it hadn’t really turned around, because it was still turning and still had a lot of turning to do, but it had potential to turn around…. one day
- Waxed lyrical about rebuilding the “paradise” of 1960s New Zealand, but then on live television admitted he had no idea that the 60s “paradise” included free university, mass state housing, a booming welfare state, and a massive government – all publicly funded through a massive tax system, including 60%+ top tax rate, death tax, gift tax and land tax (so pretty much everything ACT opposes)
- Took us all on a wild ride about the terrible expectation of people to be supported by the state their whole lives these days, unlike the good old 60s when the state supported everyone from the “cradle to the grave”, but back then it was ok because we were building a nation, but today it’s not ok…. Because back then the “vibe” was different
- Left us all (and himself) a bit confused about his position on free university education, after getting over the surprise that it was free in the 60s, then questioning how many people accessed it, but then declaring that he wouldn’t restrict that access, but noting that most people don’t realise it’s already subsidised
- Acknowledged that the ACT party’s Treaty Principles Bill arguably contradicted the Treaty itself
I could go on but these last two points deserve some focus, because not only did Jack Tame get Paul Henry, as a freshly minded ACT candidate to contradict his own leader’s argument that the TPB was a faithful interpretation, and basically agree with what the Waitangi Tribunal have been saying for two years… but he also provided us with a crystal-clear demonstration of ACT’s perverse race obsession and the lie of neo-liberalism.
Because of course it’s not really about taxes, otherwise he would not be yearning for a time when taxes were higher, and there were more of them.
Of course it’s not really about “downsizing government” or he wouldn’t be nostalgic about a time when the public sector was significantly larger than it is now and the government owned all of its own assets.
It’s got nothing to do with welfare dependency because otherwise he would not be reminiscing about the golden era of the welfare state.
He’s clearly demonstrated that it’s not about university, or businesses, or “all New Zealanders” or even his own sector of broadcasting. All of that was code-speak and white noise.
What Paul is yearning for, and interested in, is a pre-Waitangi Tribunal New Zealand. What he is actually nostalgic for is the white supremacy of the 60s, before Māori got all uppity about their land and human rights and language and the treaty. Back when you could ridicule brown people and everyone would just laugh along.
Of course when he was pressed on what he meant by “fairness and equal treatment” he reached straight for Māori and te Tiriti – because in spite of his protest that “I haven’t got a racist bone in my body”, it is actually all about race. His complete ignorance about the economic and governmental reality of the 60s took Seymour’s deny-and-deflect approach to race relations to its most absurd extent, and in doing so, he downtrowed his own party, and left his leader out here in his tighty whities.
And in true Henry style, he finished it all of with a self-satisfied smirk, apparently blissfully ignorant that his political credibility had just gone up in smoke.
Jack knew, though – I mean, look at that smile. That’s a “this is gold” smile.
He even threw him some pity-nods. Bless.
It was a hākari for the ages, celebrated by the multitudes, and while it will no doubt leave Seymour clutching his belly – many others will be going back for seconds, and thirds.
So anyways…. ABOUT TIM JAGO
