Kerre Woodham: The political circus of this week

Now it's just over three months till the election. It is a really important election. New Zealand is struggling to get back on its feet economically. A lot of Kiwis are hurting, and they've been hurting for a long, long time. And they have to decide between a party that gives them stuff, “Oh look, we've got free stuff for you," or a party that is promised to fix things, “Hey, we're in charge here," but is still in the process of fixing things and hasn't fixed a great deal yet, “Oh, it takes time.” Or even whether they should give their vote to a shiny new party, “Hi, we're from TOP," utterly unproven, has some interesting takes on taxing the rich, but hey, at least it's not National or Labour, stuff National or Labour. I'll go with that nice girl in that shiny party that may well end up taking your land off you, but hey ho, there we go, at least it's not National or Labour.  

There is a lot to think about. There's a lot to consider, there's a lot to discuss, there are policies to pick apart, but instead we've spent a week of the 12 weeks we have left until the election fixated on stupid, crass, dumb stuff that politicians and would be politicians say. Should be a new media segment: Dumb Stuff Politicians Say. The media and the public are to blame equally. The media gets clicks on the website and eyes on social media and calls on talkback. Makes it easy, don't even have to work for them. The public can have a knee jerk reaction, “Oh, that's shocking," and an immediate opinion, “What a terrible person," without having to do the hard work of reading through policies and analysis of policies. And as expected, it didn't take Paul Henry long to be at the centre of a row when he was the guest of Radio Hauraki yesterday morning. 

JEREMY WELLS: Quick game of shoot, shag, marry. Chris Luxon, Chris Hipkins, and Winston Peters. Who are you shooting? Who are you shagging? Who are you marrying? 

PAUL HENRY: I mean, you know, you've got to shoot Hipkins, haven't you? 

WELLS: Okay, so Hipkins is no more.  

MANAIA STEWART: There's your headline. 

HENRY: Yeah, I'm shagging Winston. 

WELLS: And you're marrying Luxon. 

AYESHA VERRALL: That is absolutely inappropriate and these things do have to be called out because we can't just let death threats go in our political conversation. There are nutters out there who feed off these sorts of things and one day, you know, we can be in the situation which the UK is in where members of Parliament lose their lives. 

Oh, Ayesha Verrall, cool your jets. That was Ayesha on with my colleague Nick Mills in Wellington when she'd learned that Paul Henry had played shoot, shag, marry on Radio Hauraki. Death threats. The righteous indignation from Labour seems a bit OTT given Chris Hipkins participated in a similar game on The Project some years ago, except then as it was called kick, kiss, or marry. In 2023 Chris Hipkins said he would kick David Seymour, kiss Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to get it over and done with quickly, and marry Te Pāti Māori co leader Rawiri Waititi. Kick David Seymour! He's advocating violence! He wants people to hurt the ACT Leader! No, he doesn't. And nor does Paul Henry want to kill Chris Hipkins. They all just participated in a dumb media game and after Albanese got caught up in the shag, marry, date, and Kylie Minogue and all the trouble he got into with that, I'm sure we'll see cross party support from politicians of every hue and every party that they never play that stupid, stupid game in the media ever again. I mean, you heard one of the Hauraki hosts saying, “Oh, there's your headline," and it was.  

Then you've got the National Party who have got party-wide outrage after Stuart Nash's comments on Katie Nimon and saying, “Oh, she's bloody lazy," inferring she shouldn't have taken so much maternity leave or parental leave. Now, the social media post from every Nat you've never heard of decrying the comments, and deploring them, and the like could be seen as the Nats quite rightly looking after and supporting one of their own, or it could be seen as a party-wide instruction to shriek your outrage across every media outlet because we're polling badly with women and we want to show women that we love them really, it's just that the country can't afford the pay equity legislation that Labour promised the women.  

We've got Shane Jones and his knee pads comments and for all his purple prose, his grand

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the carry Wood and Morning's podcast from
News Talks. He'd b.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Now, it's just over three months till the election, and
it is a really important election. New Zealand is struggling
to get back on its feet economically. A lot of
keys are hurting, and they've been hurting for a long
long time, and they have to decide between a party

(00:32):
that gives them stuff. Oh, look, we've got free stuff
for you, or a party that is promised to fix things. Hey,
we're in charge here, but is still in the process
of fixing things and hasn't fixed a great deal yet
it takes time, or whether they should give their vote
to a shaney new party, Hey we're from top utterly unproven,

(00:55):
has some interesting takes on taxing the rich. But hey,
at least it's not national or labor stuff national or labor.
I'll go with that nice girl in that show. Party
that may well end up taking.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
Your land off you.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
But hey, ho, there we go. At least it's not
national labor. So there is a lot to think about.
There's a lot to consider, there's a lot to discuss.
There are policies to pick apart, but instead we've spent
a week of the twelve weeks we have left until
the election fixated on stupid, crass and dumb stuff that
politicians and would be politicians say should be a new

(01:35):
media segment. Dumb stuff politicians say. The media and the
public are to blame equally. The media gets clicks on
the website and eyes on social media and calls on talkback.
Makes it easy, don't have to work for them. The
public can have a knee jerk reaction, Oh, that's shocking,

(01:58):
and an immediate opinion, what a terrible person, without having
to do the hard work of reading through policies and
analysis of policies. And as expected, it didn't take Paul
Henry long to be at the center of a rah
when he was the guest of Radio Hedek yesterday morning.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Quick game of Shoot Shag Mary, Chris Luckson, Chris Hipkins
and Winston Peters.

Speaker 4 (02:23):
Who are you shooting? Who are you shagging? Who are
you marrying?

Speaker 1 (02:26):
I mean, you know you've got to shoot Hipkins, haven't you.
There's your headline, Yeah, I'm shagging Winston and you're marrying Muckson.

Speaker 4 (02:33):
That is absolutely inappropriate, and these things do have to
be called out because we can't just let death threats
go in our political conversation. There are nutters out there
who feed off these sorts of things, and one day,
you know, we can be in the situation which the
UK is in, where members of Parliament lose their lives.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Oh Ashaveral called your jets. That was Asher on with
my colleague Nick Mills and Wellington when she'd learned that
Paul Henry had played shoot Shagg Mary on Radio Hodak
death threats. The righteous indignation from Labour seems a bit
ott given Chris Hipkins participated in a similar game on

(03:14):
the Project some years ago, except in that case it
was called kick, kiss or Marry. In twenty twenty three,
Chris Hipkins said he would kick David Seymour, kiss Prime
Minister Christopher Luxem to get it over and done with
quickly and married Tepati Maori co leader Rowdy WAITITETI kick
David Simo. He's advocating violence. He wants people to hurt

(03:36):
the act leader. No, he doesn't, and nor does Paul
Henry want to kill Chris Hipkins. They all just participated
in a dumb media game. And after Albanezy got caught
up in the shag Mary Date and Kylie Minogue and
all the trouble he got into with that. I'm sure
we'll see cross parties support from politicians of every hue
and every party that they never played that stupid, stupid

(03:58):
game in the media ever again.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
I mean, you heard one of.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
The Hodaki hosts, there's your headline and it was then
you've got the National Party who have got party wide
outrage after Stuart Nash's comments on Katie Niemenen saying that
she's bloody lazy and fearing she shouldn't have taken so
much maternity leave or parental leave. Now that the social

(04:24):
media posts from every gnatch you've never heard of decrying
the comments and deploring them and the like, could be
seen as the gnats quite rightly looking after and supporting
one of their own, or it could be seen as
a party wide instruction to shriek your outrage across every
media outlet because we're polling badly with women and we

(04:46):
want to show women that we love them. Really, it's
just that the country can't afford the pay equity legislation
that labor promised the women. We've got Shane Jones and
his Kneepads comments and for all his purple prose, his grandiloquence,
his circumlocution, his sesqui pa daily in tendencies, he's just
as smutty as the next guy. Loves a double entente,

(05:08):
you know. But really the columns is generated and the
time wasted by that comment and just gross to his mill.
This is what New Zealand First thrives on. Agitate and
offend people, then leap back to crying them all as
wokesters and say.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
New Zealand First has had a man up. Hey, you'll
be able to kneepad your way around the bloody morning
tea room when New Zealand First is in power. Hey,
don't you worry about that, Ohan.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
It's just nonsense, absolute nonsense. There are columns in the newspaper,
there are columns online. There are radio programs where you
can discuss and detail the policies of the different parties
and how they'll impact on New Zealand now and in
the future. But people don't read them. We can show

(05:59):
you the figures and that's people. That's the audience. They
click on the Kneepads, they click on Katie Nim and
they click on Paul Henry and the Shoot Shag Mary.
They do not click on Treasury's analysis of the Green parties. Well,
they do, but not as nearly the same numbers. So

(06:21):
it's on all of us, except not really us, because
we do talk policy more than your average radio program,
and you, as the audience who make us the number
one rating show. Do read, do absorb, do analyze the

(06:42):
policies more than the average member of the public. But honestly,
given that this is one of the most important elections
we've got coming up, this is what's dominated the headlines
for a week. We do get the government we deserve
when Shoot Shag Mary is the most read column for

(07:04):
the week with twelve weeks to go for an election.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
For more from Kerry Wood and Mornings, listen live to
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