Has third-termitis come early to the Ardern Government?

Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s Budget this week will loom over generations to come; it is no exaggeration to say it is the most important Budget in decades.

There will be intense debate about whether he’s got it right; so it’s unfortunate that as we head into Budget week the Government is exhibiting premature signs of the affliction known as third-termitis.

That was most evident in the emergence of a leaked memo this week in which ministers’ offices were advised not to waste any time defending themselves to the media – not because they had anything much to hide but because (to paraphrase) people love us anyway, so why bother?

It’s the assumption behind that advice that is so alarming; it speaks of supreme confidence, at the moment, that this Government can do no wrong in the eyes of the public.

And to a point they’re right; the backlash to any criticism of Jacinda Ardern or her Government in the current environment is a constant weight on the media’s shoulders; when they ask why unprotected health workers are still getting sick with coronavirus, they are shouted down for being negative; likewise questions about people dying or getting sick from delays to cancer treatment or surgery.

But the point of these questions is not to tear the Government down; it’s about cutting through the spin and the flannel to get to the truth.

Given the scale of this crisis, and the extent to which it has touched every life, that is more important now than ever.

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, for instance, says 20,000 operations were cancelled and 60,000 specialist appointments parked. It will take more than a year to catch up, they say. Yet questions about how the Government will deal with this have largely been fobbed off.

There was another disturbing sight this week when AttorneyGeneral David Parker refused media interviews on the legality of the Covid lockdown, preferring instead to interview himself in a 42-minute-long livestream on Facebook.

It’s not hard to see why a minister might prefer this option to a grilling from a journalist; there are no pesky questions to trip them up, or rip holes in their defence, or catch them out in an evasive eye shuffle. Facebook has become this Government’s best friend; its shoulder shrug in response to questions about transparency and accessibility. But of course it’s also about controlling not just the message, but image, and the news agenda.

But as we come out of lockdown, and face up to the huge recovery mission ahead, fronting up to hard questions should not be optional.