Aces in their places

All the aces were in their places when Christopher bounded up the stairs, to announce his new Government, including Melissa Lee with the Media and Communications portfolio and Penny Simmonds looking after the Disabled.

Lee was very experienced in media, and thought to be something of a thorn in Labour's side - and Simmonds had been around for some time.

A pair of Aces in their places in Christopher's deck.

Things were simple and straightforward way back then, in November 2023, but around 27 February 2024, Discovery announced it was shutting down NewsHub.

It is reported that RNZ understood Newshub contacted the Prime Minister's office ahead of the 11 am meeting that day - and asked for Christopher Luxon to get in touch. Luxon said it is "highly unlikely" there would be any government intervention in the sector.

Was it that lack of intervention that made Mellisa Lee's job suddenly more complex?

The Prime Minister told media "Media players in the marketplace are completely free to innovate as they wish to make sure that they can build a sustainable business model that works for the customers that they serve ... there are some media outlets that are doing that and are working incredibly well." - Luxon

Yes it was a live and let die, free market ideology that Luxon was amplifying in late February 2024.

So whether his Minister was Melissa or Paul Goldsmith - the situation was the same - National was not going to intervene unless something forced them to do so.

On 4 March 2024 Guyon Espiner reported :

"Officials warned the government it may face requests to bailout media companies if it failed to progress a law forcing digital platforms to pay local media for using their content.

The warning, from officials at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, came in November last year, months before Newshub collapsed.

The advice to Media and Communications Minister Melissa Lee said any further delay to a law change forcing Google and Facebook to pay local media companies for using their news content could lead to job losses."

The complexity of it all - National being pressured to do something they do not want to do - the looming possibility of bailouts if they don't get on with things - while Melissa Lee submits a paper about responses to the situation to Cabinet - without consulting NZ First.

But wait - on 19 March 2024 RNZ reported that Lee had been consulting coalition partners about that paper before submitting it?

"Lee is set to take a paper to Cabinet soon, setting out her plans for the portfolio. She has been consulting with coalition partners before she takes the paper to Cabinet committee." - RNZ 3:31 pm on 19 March 2024.

That's right Batman, something wasn't quite adding up, but as per usual there's a perfectly rational explanation - like, she did consult, but not enough.

Anyway - as you know Lee was kind of wandering around in this sort of empty, confused landscape, where she was stuck in a vortex of uncertainty - caught between no intervention and having to intervene while Winston blocks things - and saying to passing media, I don't know, I have a paper, I'm not a magician and there's other media who do just fine, ....while overhead a Winston Bomber flies and drops the explosive news that Lee's paper has been sent back to coventry.

Wow, what a cock up that was - the coalition of chaos standing on land mines - but deeply humiliating for Lee who must have privately looked like an angry frog when the headlines lit up.

Winston 1 National 0 and Lee proceeds to the naughty corner.

On some level we all feel a bit of sympathy - but only in the same way Melissa felt sympathy for Clare. It must have been crap being strung out into no mans land and then being shat on from a very great height by a coalition partner in public like that.

This seems one of the unseen features of MMP - the back room snapping and yelping and scratching - while before cameras it's all smiles and waves.

"Have you ever seen such a smooth well oiled Machine?", said You've got to be joking - to I'll buy that for a dollar.

Lee was the unlucky person to be abandoned like this to uncertainty at the wrong time - when media's self interest was raised to a peak height and Luxon was like die you mofo die, why won't you die...but using other words - like "What I would say to you, clearly - and I want to be clear, that's how I roll, it's time to innovate like other media do."

So while I won't weep about Melissa - I do acknowledge that her brand was burned by a combination of intense media focus, Luxon's Free Market resistance to intervene, Winston's hostile wagging of the dog, and - a leaking cabinet - and so she has been swapped out - humiliated, dragged to a table, forced to sign a statement, and a new deal has been agreed so she can carry on - but outside Cabinet, like push off, thanks for nothing.

Luxon said it was nothing to do with her really, cos he was likely talking about the inner coalition dynamics, conflicts and uncertainty about the near future - and the resistance to tax Facebook or Google.

It's worth adding that the whole aces in their places thing only applies in the context of handling Winston and Seymour.

Lee has no experience, Goldsmith a smidgeon more, but the thing that's different about Goldsmith is - he's in the inner circle - he gets to meet with the tight five.

It's easier for Luxon to control the coalition dynamics with cards closer to his chest.

The Atlas Network Think Tank the NZ Initiative - came out and stated it was against taxing these digital giants and instead media should stand on their own two feet.

That brought the Atlas Network into direct conflict with media bosses - which is trouble at home - like shouting in the bedroom.

Whereas the Simmonds thing was more a simple case of a Minister who is tone deaf - handling cost overruns wrongly, penny pinching the disabled and their carers to pay for tax cuts and how the public deeply resented this.

Simmonds was merely communicating exactly what Neoliberals think and the general lack of empathy they have - which is a feature of all these cuts to jobs.

You've got Seymour taking the free lunches away - and he's proud to do so. That kind of thing...

The brand damage to Simmonds was deep and by proxy to National...and many were simply disgusted. Spit on the ground type stuff.

This was really all about a pawn doing the Queens dirty work.

Someone had to be held up and punished by demotion to take the heat off Willis and the way all of this cruel neoliberal cost cutting and sacking is entirely unnecessary and all for her election bribe.

The cuts for the disabled - I mean - it is a deliberate choice - not to care - and that choice has been made by Willis and Luxon and the inner circle - to let vulnerable and "bottom feeder" NZ go to hell - but with a tax cut...worth three chuppa chups a week.

So as you can see, it's not about Luxon being stronger or striking fear into the hearts of MPs as Thomas says - but him being in a big internal coalition dog fight. His team likely coached him what to do and say, Bishop's tiny mouth flapping, Willis screeching, Goldsmith chattering like a bespectacled ferret...the Atlas Network frowning...

So it was Luxon bounded up the stairs ...it's how he rolls, it's how he leads...I am just a person who...blah blah blah

Aces in their places

G