This election isn’t Trivial Pursuits
So, here’s an embarrassing confession. A few years back I was doing a last interview with Helen Clark. It’s something I’ve done five elections in a row: wide-ranging interviews with the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition for the Sunday before polling day.
We start with a pop quiz: the price of milk, the President of the Congo, that sort of thing.
‘‘Ah, that would be President Joseph Kabila,’’ Clark said. Nope, I said, reading my notes. ‘‘That’s funny,’’ she mused, ‘‘because I just met with him.’’
She was right and I was wrong. Of course. Clark famously has a mind like an iron possum trap.
This week, as we sat down in front of the cameras for a final campaign interview with Jacinda Ardern, I asked her whether she still got nervous. Yes, she confessed, a little flutter.
She and Bill English both knew I would hit them with questions to expose any weakness or inconsistency. This is the media’s role: to help voters judge whether the contenders are up to the job.
The truth is, the quiz questions are fun but they don’t matter. Only Clark ever nailed them all.
This week Ardern tripped up on the president of South Korea; English tripped up on Israel – even though both leaders had announced policies putting them at odds with those countries.
But the test of a good Prime Minister is not being the best Trivial Pursuits player at a dinner party. After all, they’ve always got Google to fall back on. (Though I suspect Google was partly to blame for my Congolese faux pas!)
What is more important is that they understand what their policies will mean for all Kiwis.
What is important is their judgement and vision. And there is often no right answer – just who you agree with.
Where their visions diverge most starkly are on water, health, housing and – yes – taxes.
Jacinda Ardern was right to give voters greater certainty about a capital gains tax. But she was wrong to push her solution to the housing crisis back beyond 2020. We can’t wait that long: she needs the courage of her convictions.
There are people who are homeless, living in cars. There are others, like my colleague Yvonne Kerr and her family, who can rent a decent home, but are unable to get on the property ladder.
Yvonne and her partner Antony, a teacher, are concerned that neither leader, with their own million-dollar houses, really understands the challenges facing regular Kiwis. ‘‘You can call it a crisis, a shortage, or whatever you want,’’ Antony says. ‘‘The fact is 60 per cent of New Zealanders don’t own a home.’’
This election, you can vote for the best Trivial Pursuits player. Or for the best bean-counter. Or for the person who makes you feel hopeful about the future.
Or you can vote for the person who shows they are listening.