If everyone in this country watched Christopher Luxon yesterday outline where our education system is at, he would not have the issues he currently does around whether he is getting traction in polls.

He talked about how the system got where it is, how it is measured and how the world sees us.

Ultimately, it is why it will all come right later this year when the campaign properly starts and some decent attention is put on his performance.

There is no question that the media are biased towards Labour.

There is no question that any opposition, at the best of times, has trouble getting attention.

But a campaign and its coverage rules, to some extent, fixes that. In the meantime you are required to sit, as I did, watching a live feed of a policy release and next to no one is doing that.

And by the time the media get to it and hack it to pieces so we can have it delivered in our proffered bite sized chunks, virtually all of the substance and impact of what was said is lost.

The tragedy is this - a lot of what he said wasn’t spin and it wasn’t political. It was just fact, stats, numbers, results of studies and research done by various experts, in various countries over a good number of years.

In really simple terms this country and our education system is shocking. And we know it's shocking because it didn’t used to be that way.

We have, and continue to, go backwards. Now, that shouldn’t be news to anyone, but when you book mark it the way he did it's an eye opener

The teachers, largely, are not to blame. It is the way we teach, the work load they are expected to undertake, the lack of confidence they have in the first place and the expectation of a Government or ministry that has completely skewed what is important.

Essentially what National are advocating in their policy is nothing exceptional. It's simply going back to what we once did, which is basic competency in basic subjects.

When you have the basics you have confidence. When you have confidence you feel you can do more.

There is no magic. Just, sadly, an appalling hijacking of a system by wonks in Wellington that for some reason have been allowed to run rampant.

What we have by way of an education outcome for so many kids is inexcusable and indefensible.

If you watched Luxon prosecute that yesterday you'd see a bloke who gets it and, more importantly, wants to do something about it.

As more New Zealanders see more of that they will see why the election is nowhere near as close as the polls might suggest.