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Mike's Minute: Ardern can't stand up to scrutiny

Author
Mike Hosking,
Publish Date
Tue, 9 Mar 2021, 10:00AM

Mike's Minute: Ardern can't stand up to scrutiny

Author
Mike Hosking,
Publish Date
Tue, 9 Mar 2021, 10:00AM

Dare I bore you with the fallout to yesterday's decision from the Prime Minister to no longer appear on this show each Monday morning?

When asked at her post Cabinet conference yesterday she uttered something about not being able to do everything. No one ever asked her to do such a thing, just what each Prime Minister had managed to do for the past 30 odd years.

She clearly isn't up to that standard.

She also uttered something about reaching an audience. This is the biggest audience going. The simple truth is, as I said yesterday, she's running for the hills because she's scared, she hates a hard question, she hates fact, she hates accountability, and she hates not being fawned over.

I ran past the dairy yesterday and saw the magazine cover she currently graces. That's her. In magazines you get to dictate the copy and approve the photo. That’s her. Complete control, air brush away the reality and fact.

What wasn’t reported yesterday because sadly this show got the headlines, is the fact that Morning Report, the breakfast show of the state-run radio station, has apparently agreed to re-arrange the Prime Ministerial schedule to allow the Prime Minster to come on the day of her choosing, on the topic of her choosing.

If true, and God I hope I am wrong, the fact they have allowed this is little short of a scandal. I note by the way, in all the coverage yesterday of the Hosking-Ardern fall out, Radio NZ didn’t touch the story. Why not? It was, without question, a legitimate story and covered by the majority of the rest of the media.

Dare I ask, ahead of time, whether the taxpayer funded in-house naval gaze they call Mediawatch, will be examining the issue this week? Or will they like, the embarrassing expose of the media's bias around the cannabis referendum, particularly their own, conveniently ignore it?

Anyway, on the state-funded radio station the Prime Minister now apparently dictates what day she appears, and on what topics.

Hello? Anyone at home? You and I pay for this place. The government runs it and at no point the Prime Minister dictating terms to what I thought was still claiming to be an independent operator draws attention? Are the media literally asleep? Or just so compliant, and apologetic to Labour, that this is their dream scenario?

On balance, the Prime Minister lost yesterday. There was enough reaction both from you and the commentators, that showed the Prime Minister has been exposed for what she is.

Enough of you saw this as a reaction to accountability. And thank God enough of you, still hold accountability as a critical part of leadership.

Like her or don’t like her, like me or don't like me. That’s not the point. The point is to be Prime Minister, you have to be up for it. You have to be willing to be up for it. You have to defend your corner. You have to argue your corner. You have to know your facts. You have to deal with people like me.

You have to be better than what Ardern is. 30 years of Prime Ministers have shown it.

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