Wagner’s disability? Being tone-deaf

Disability Issues Minister Nicky Wagner has been learning the hard way about the perils of the ill-judged tweet, after telling people that she would rather be boating on Auckland Harbour than doing her job.

For most of us, this would not be a controversial suggestion. A day off is obviously to be preferred to the daily grind in the office. And Wagner’s tweeted photo suggested it was a lovely day for cruising the Waitemata Harbour last Thursday.

But Wagner’s actual words on Twitter were so off-key that it’s hard to see how she would not know they would offend: ‘‘Busy day with disability meetings in Auckland – rather be out on the harbour!’’

The final exclamation mark only served to emphasise the insult to people with disabilities everywhere – the people she is paid to work for in Cabinet.

The tweet seemed to go largely unnoticed for 48 hours before it was picked up and shared on Saturday, and then roundly condemned in an entirely predictable Twitter storm.

Some of the ripostes were unprintable.

‘‘You are paid a very healthy wage to do an honourable job,’’ one respondent told Wagner. ‘‘If you don’t want to do it, resign. You won’t be missed.’’

There were many other calls for Wagner to step aside.

Unwisely, Wagner tried to doubledown on her comments yesterday, saying it had been a gorgeous day and ‘‘we all would have rather had the meetings out on the harbour’’.

Another bad call. The vision of a jolly boatload of advocates from the Murray Halberg Trust and the New Zealand Artificial Limb Service simply didn’t ring true.

Finally, Wagner saw sense and apologised ‘‘for any offence I have caused’’.

Among other recent tweets, Wagner has been crowing about poorer opinion poll showings for the Labour Party and its leader, Andrew Little.

But there are now fewer than 100 days before the general election, and the polls also suggest National will not command a majority.

In this environment, every vote counts and one of the ways National can lose them is by appearing to be arrogant, insensitive or insincere.

Social media such as Twitter is important nowadays in setting the political tone, as the embattled US President Donald Trump ought to be learning, but isn’t. Public perception is also crucial. British Prime Minister Theresa May’s image took a career-limiting hammering before and after the recent United Kingdom election. Her debate no-shows, aloofness and refusal to meet the victims and bereaved at the site of London’s Grenfell Tower fire disaster have put her political future in jeopardy.