Francesca Rudkin: What's with all the press releases?

As we close in on the summer break, many of us are rushing to tidy up loose ends - and for the Government this week, it resulted in a swag of media releases. On Friday afternoon they put out 18! 

Friday afternoons are a popular time to release average or bad news. The idea being that the media are beginning to clock off for the week and there is less ‘live’ news over the weekend, so hopefully less advantageous information will slip through the cracks. Or by the time it catches someone’s eye on Monday, more important things will have captured the media’s attention. 

Clearly the pressure of Christmas has not yet hit me - I read all the releases. I was intrigued to see whether the Government was burying news, sharing important information, or just making a show of being busy - you know, ticking a box or KPI off the promise list.  

And it was a mix. There were celebratory ones. There were vague ones, and there were a number of boring ones. It seems politicians are wrapping up their to-do lists for the year.  

There were three releases announcing appointments, a collection of releases updating on work in fisheries sustainability, the Therapeutic Products Act, the safe, secure, responsible use of space, and the Holidays Act. In summary, messages reassuring us that they’ve ‘got this'. 

There was a hint of celebration. We killed a record number of goats in the annual wild goat hunting competition - 12,935 goats were killed in the name of conservation. Issues relating to the Kaitaia airport have been resolved and its future secured. New Zealand and Thailand have agreed to upgrade the relationship to a strategic partnership by 2026. The Three Strikes Bill passed its third reading, and ground was broken on a new child health centre at Whangarei Hospital.  

In summary, messages reassuring us that progress is being made.   

As you’d expect from a Government obsessed with targets, there were a few press releases about targets for mental health and child poverty. Child Poverty Reduction Minister Louise Upston’s release stated the Government had set a target to lift 15,000 children out of persistent child poverty by 2035 – the first time a NZ Government had set this specific target.

I have no issue with the target, but there was little further information on how this would be achieved, raising only what has been mentioned before. 

The best press release of Friday afternoon came from NZ Herald’s Claire Trevett’s choice for Politician of the Year - Transport Minister Simeon Brown. His media release was about changes for the tolling of roads, and in particular for the Roads of National Significance. What make his release such good reading was it actually had some detail - the toll rates, the roads affected, and information on how it impacts different vehicles. I shouldn’t sound surprised, but after trying to imagine how the Government was going to reduce child poverty the presence of detail was startling.  

After a riotous afternoon of reading, it occurred to me that the flurry of media releases provides a pretty neat summary for the Government’s year in politics. Lots of sound and fury, some ministers having more to show that others, some big wins, some small wins. But in politics, any win counts - particularly when there is no silver bullet.  

With one more week of Parliament, I expect another week filled with media releases as the Government looks to prove they are delivering and succeeding. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News TALKSB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
So as we close and on the summer break, many
of us are rushing to tidy up loose ends and
for the government this week, it resulted in a swag
of media releases. On Friday afternoon, they put out eighteen.
Friday afternoons are a popular time to release average or
bad news. The idea being that the media are beginning

(00:34):
to clock off for the week and there is less
live news over the weekend, so hopefully less advantageous information
will slip through the cracks, or by the time it
catches someone's eye on Monday, more important things will have
captured the media's attention. Clearly, the pressure of Christmas has
not hit me yet. Because I read all eighteen releases,

(00:55):
I was intrigued to see whether the government was burying news,
sharing important information, or just making a show of being busy,
you know, ticking a box or a kpi off the
promise list.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
And it was.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
There were celebratory press releases, there were vague ones, and
there were a number of boring ones. It seems politicians
are wrapping up there to do lists for the year two.
There were three releases announcing appointments, a collection of releases
updating on work and fishery sustainability, the Therapeutic Products Act,
the Safe Secure Responsible Use of Space, and the Holidays Act.

(01:29):
In summary messages reassuring us that they've got this. There
was a hint of celebration. We killed a record number
of goats in the annual wild goat hunting competition. Nine
hundred and thirty five wild goats were killed in the
name of conservation. Issues relating to the Kaitaia Airport have

(01:49):
been resolved and its future secured. New Zealand and Thailand
have agreed to upgrade our relationship to a strategic partnership
by twenty twenty six, and the Three Strikes Bill passed
its third reading and ground was broken on a new
child health center at Fugadai Hospitals. In summary messages reassuring
us that progress is being made and as you'd expect

(02:11):
from a government obsessed with targets, there were a few
press releases about targets for mental health and child poverty.
Child poverty reduction Minister Louise Upston's release stated that the
government had set a target to lift fifteen thousand children
out of persistent child poverty by twenty thirty five, and
this is the first time in New Zealand government had

(02:31):
set a specific target. Now I have no issue with target.
Nice to have a release on it, but there was
little further information on how this would be achieved, raising
only what had been mentioned before. The best press release
of Friday afternoon, though, came from New Zealand Herald's Claire
Trevette's choice of politician of the Year, Transport Minister Simeon Brown.

(02:54):
His media release was about changes for the tolling of roads,
and in particular for the roads of significance. What makes
his release such good reading was it actually had some
detail the toll rate, the roads affected, and information on
how it impacts different vehicles. I shouldn't sound surprised, but
after trying to imagine how the government was going to

(03:16):
reduce child poverty, the presence of detail was startling. After
a riotous afternoon of reading, it occurred to me that
the flurry of media releases provides a pretty neat summary
for the government's year in politics. Lots of sound and fury,
some ministers having more to show than others, some big wins,
some small ones, but in politics, anyone counts, particularly when
there is no silver bullet for a complicated issue. With

(03:40):
one more week of Parliament, I expect another week filled
with media releases as the government looks to prove they
are delivering and succeeding. I might just read a few.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin. Listen
live to news talks they'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.