Political correctness

Can you please tell me what is politically correct about the headlines to the article about Julie Anne Genter saying ‘‘Old White Men’’ should quit as Directors. The statement is Racial. This is a racial slur on white people and age. No one can say ‘‘Young Brown or Black Females’’ . So how come it is all right to say ‘‘Old White men’’.

People should be in positions because of their knowledge and ability not because of their age, sex or colour.

This so called Women’s Minister needs to put her brain in gear before she opens her mouth.

Air New Zealand needed Shane Jones this week like it needed a hole in the head. Having paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring former US President Barack Obama to New Zealand, the airline would have been expecting the public relations payback to be tenfold.

But the trip was a massive wasted opportunity.

The images of Obama teeing up at some of the world’s most exclusive and beautiful golf clubs might play well in the overseas markets that Air NZ targets.

But here the impression of the trip read like something out of lifestyles of the rich and famous as Obama and a coterie of rich men were choppered in and out of luxury resorts, out of the range of prying eyes.

The public didn’t even get a glimpse of Obama when he arrived for his speech in downtown Auckland – people who lined up outside because they weren’t important or rich enough to get a ticket to the invitation-only event booed when giant screens were erected to block their view.

The contrast between the PR shots and the airline’s cutbacks in regional New Zealand – ironically, including Northland, where Obama was flown by helicopter for his golf round – was stark. Jones’ assault on the airline for corporate arrogance and abandoning the ‘‘real’’ New Zealand couldn’t have been timed better.

His criticism of Air New Zealand for axing routes like Kaitaia has struck a real nerve out there in the regions that NZ First professes to champion.

Former National MP Chester Burrows was among those to join the ranks of Jones’ cheerleaders, writing about Air New Zealand’s woeful service to regions like Whanganui, where he lives.

The public response has been just as swift. Jones’ inbox is said to have been flooded by 500 plus emails supporting his withering criticism of the airline.

Jones went too far when he called on the Air New Zealand board to step down and reminded them the Crown is a majority shareholder. But Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s immediate slap down probably did him no harm.

Appeasing the business community is not his concern. At 3 per cent and sinking, NZ First is on a road to oblivion if, as is widely expected, Winston Peters decides to call time on his political career this term.

The next three years will be a desperate scrap with National for hearts and minds in regional New Zealand. If the air goes out of National’s support, voters in those regions might be swayed to vote strategically for NZ First to keep