| Editorial
Among the soundest advice a politician can ever take is to play the ball, not the person. Yet again this election year that wisdom appears lost in the maul. The question those who continue to trade in political dirt need to ask themselves is: do scandals win votes? The answer is almost certainly not. On the contrary, almost every political mud-slinging match our politicians or their activists have started this year and in previous elections has caused greater collateral damage to the originating team than to the intended target. Moreover, these finger-pointing sagas use up scarce media time. During a campaign, that precious time is better spent debating the policies with which the parties are hoping to attract supporters.
If ever there was a lesson on this, it was the last election. Internet baron Kim Dotcom commanded massive public attention by promising to dish dirt on the Government, only for his fledgling Internet Party to spectacularly fail, scoring 1% of the vote. In the same election, Nicky Hager’s Dirty Politics published stolen emails from among National activists, sympathetic bloggers and even a prime ministerial staffer, sucking the oxygen out of the campaign for all parties. Was the public won over? Hardly. The implicit message here: don’t try to bully or blindside voters with threats and allegations during the campaign because it is apt to be seen as an attempt at manipulation. The motives and biases of the scandalmongers are given even harsher scrutiny than those who are the subject of leaks or other discomfiting information.
Right now, the focus might be expected to be on how New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters for years received a higher rate of NZ Super than that to which he was entitled. Instead, the hunt is on for how information that would be expected to be private became public. Shortly before the Peters ruckus, Labour’s Chris Hipkins tried to use Parliament’s question time to play a role in publicly exposing an Australian minister’s citizenship woes. The spotlight quickly swivelled back.
No party is immune. There was a perverse outcome when Greens co-leader Metiria Turei sought at the party’s campaign launch to make a scandal of the plight of beneficiaries. At first, outing herself as a benefit cheat appeared to work. After she confessed to hiding rental income as a young solo mother, others came forward to detail at times harsh treatment by case workers. This might have succeeded in raising issues that Turei thought should be public, but under the inevitable scrutiny prompted by her mea culpa, it transpired that she had been insufficiently forthcoming about her circumstances at the time, and the scandal pendulum swung against her. The result: she and two other Greens resigned and the polls now suggest the party is in danger of getting insufficient votes to return to Parliament.
The Todd Barclay affair, too, brought collateral damage that rapidly escalated beyond the control of the scandalmongers. It appeared to have been inaugurated and whipped along for two years by a small group of National activists simply intent on getting rid of their local MP. Their whispering campaign and leaks eventually did the job but the damage did not end with Barclay’s resignation. Prime Minister Bill English himself was caught up because of his – reluctant – involvement in managing the affair. The leakers achieved their local ends but at great expense.
Voters are intuitively suspicious of those who shout “brawl!” in an attempt to divert attention.
This is not to say that politicians should be excused discrepancies between their policies, rhetoric and personal conduct. They should be accountable. Their integrity and trustworthiness are important.
But elections are the parties’ chance to show their policies and strategies to the public gathered in the stands. Voters are not stupid and they are quickly annoyed and intuitively suspicious of those who shout “brawl!” in an attempt to divert attention.
There are plenty of real considerations in this campaign. Management of the economy, ideas to redress inequality, measures to enhance environmental protection, policies to improve actual learning in schools, the exact extent of the many proposed taxes, New Zealand’s engagement with the world – this all matters vitally to us. There are just weeks left for the parties to get votes across the line. And in this pressured campaign environment, politicians would do well to remember the old political adage: those who sling dirt lose ground.