We need to talk about Kelvin

Waimea Rivers as they have done for millennia.

Considering the aquatic environment as a whole, and not just the pest species introduced to New Zealand for the entertainment of anglers, then it is far from clear which option is better. House, Davis strode across the bridge toward journalists on his own.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson, who was always going to be stopped for questioning that day, had hit the tiles about 30 seconds ahead of Davis. Something wasn’t right.

What doesn’t make sense about this is Labour loves nothing more than to wheel out MPs to stand alongside their leader to nod and show a united front.

It’s a smart strategy – one it usually does better than National – but something went terribly wrong on Wednesday.

Had they used Chinese whispers to deliver the message to Robertson that he needed to walk the media gauntlet with Davis to help with the curly finance questions, but by the time the message landed it had gone skewwhiff?

Davis got thrown to the pack and desperately tried to keep his head above water. Asked what year Labour wanted to reduce net debt to 20 per cent of GDP by, Davis stumbled around before spluttering ‘‘over the economic cycle’’. Unconvinced, the reporter asked again, yes, but what year?

Red-faced and out of his depth, Davis conceded he had lost and switched to straight-up honesty, saying, ‘‘I’m sorry I don’t know the