High price of roadshows
The leak of Opposition leader Simon Bridges’ $114,000 spend-up of nonministerial MP expenses on flights, hotels and a Crown limo has received huge coverage. Investigations worthy of Hercule Poirot to find out the identity of the leaker have been ordered by Speaker Trevor Mallard, who has engaged the services of a Queen’s Counsel and a forensic ICT specialist to investigate the matter.
MPs on both sides of the House denied any involvement and maintained a front of collective consternation. Sleuth Winston Peters, a recent recipient of a leak about his superannuation payments, cheerfully opined that he had narrowed the suspects down to four.
While the beltway bristled with conjecture over who leaked the spend-up to Newshub political editor Tova O’Brien, O’Brien herself was on the receiving end of a stronger-than-garlic ballistic attack from Matthew Hooton, the managing director of the PR and lobbyist firm Exceltium.
Hooton, who is also a regular political commentator from the Right on RNZ’s Nine to Noon show, alleged that a despicable smear campaign was being run against Bridges, ‘‘aided and abetted by an extreme Left-wing, anti-National Party journalist called Tova O’Brien, who was a disgrace to the profession and a disgrace to Newshub’’.
Hooton well knows that when a journalist is leaked information it is their fourth estate right and duty to pass on that information to the public. To single out O’Brien as an extreme Left-winger and destroyer of the National Party was downright disingenuous. And Hooton’s extreme reaction and passionate defence of Bridges left one wondering just how close the PR guy is to the political fortunes of the current Opposition leader.
For politicians and political junkies, the Bridges roadshow blow-out story was all about the leak. To the public, the perception was that taxpayers appeared to be footing the bill for campaigning that should have come out of party coffers.
When first confronted with the spend-up, Bridges went on the attack, saying he was getting out and about meeting the people and doing mahi (hard work). His party was high in the polls but if looks could kill Bridges’ leadership, he appeared to be living high on the hog. Footage of him getting into a Crown limo was shown repeatedly on TV news bulletins. To show balance, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, masticating mid-munch, was shown getting out of a Crown limo.
By the Thursday, Labour MPs and the prime minister were captured travelling in a proletariat people-mover van, now the regulation mode of transport for roadshows. In the Wairarapa electorate, where a real campaign has started, the PM was pictured getting into a beat-up red ute with the rear window missing.
The prime minister admitted Labour was mindful of keeping travelling costs down. What, one wonders, can National do to show similar fiscal travelling restraint? Is it too late for Bridges to hire a freedom campervan (perhaps a Wicked) with a slightly uncouth but witty rear-end message that resonates with rural communities, complete with blow-up mattresses and customised ‘‘Zip it Sweetie’’ sleeping bags and tents? Trips to Levin, home of the closest Gull petrol station to Wellington, could be worked into schedules to provide photo opportunities of Nat MPs filling up large on low-cost fuel.
Meanwhile, a fleet of spurned Crown limos will be left to sulk in their garages and may have to go up on blocks. Perhaps they could be sub-leased to fat-cat city consultants, or be fostered out to the Southward Car Museum, till everyone forgets about the high price of regional roadshows.