Comment: No one publicly sticks up for Christopher Luxon as much as Mike.
Not even Christopher Luxon.
Mike Hosking’s support is the unchallengeable loyalty of a parent watching a child play top sport or performing the lead role in a musical.
While the views of Luxon’s mum, wife and kids are unspoken publicly, when times get tough politically Mike steps in to offer what Luxon would call “scaffolding” around him.
The influential radio host dismisses Luxon’s detractors in caucus as “paranoid”, as “self-absorbed dickheads” and even “a duplicitous shit”, engaging in a self-serving “bitchathon”.
He puts “so-called commentators” in the media to the sword. He derides critical coverage of the Prime Minister, even in ZB’s sister paper the New Zealand Herald, as cynical or naïve.
And he offers near-constant praise, validation and reinforcement to the Prime Minister who has faced down two votes of confidence from his own parliamentary colleagues in the past four months.
“Stared them down again, and they folded like an umbrella,” he concluded in an end-of-week rating last Friday for Luxon of 8 out of 10.
“I’m thrilled for Christopher Luxon. He deserves a lot better than he has got. The foibles, if you want to put them like that, are not sackable offences,” said Mike.
“He is a better man than they.”
If the daily radio show is a confidence vote all of its own, the Monday morning Hosking interview with Luxon on Newstalk ZB is a weekly therapy session.
It’s unlike any interaction between a political leader and broadcaster that has gone before.
A fortnight ago, when Luxon’s most recent leadership turbulence had emerged after his comments to a Rotorua small business audience, Mike doubted Luxon had been wrong to say what he said, that business people had to wean themselves off a reliance on government. He reckoned some of the Rotorua Chamber businesses were among those who wanted to wake up, be told how to live their lives and have their “bums wiped”.
The “misery and woe” their chief had expressed were in the face of “indisputable” facts to the contrary.
If Luxon felt reassured by the pep talk, it didn’t hold. Within eight hours, after harder heads in Cabinet had possibly proffered contrary views, he chose to apologise publicly to the small business people for his comments. “I got that wrong.”
It was a rare break with Mike’s on-air counselling. Had Luxon held the line, it’s arguable his critics might not have sensed blood, that they might not have got on a roll, not spooked the party leader into a second vote.
Back in April, when Luxon first faced a vote of confidence, Mike leaked the names of five National MPs he alleged were behind the plot. All five subsequently complained, and talked of waiting for apologies.
In the lead-up to last week’s caucus confidence vote called by Luxon, Mike talked down the potential replacements, talked up the incumbent and fretted at what he diagnosed as paranoia afoot on the National backbench. “Given all the polling this should not be happening,” he told his audience. “That’s how mental it all is.”
His man survived – and turned up in the studio again this week for the Monday therapy.
The pair had also been together, away from the couch, at Newstalk ZB’s 100 years on air at a function on Friday night. Luxon was buzzing from “hanging out with a whole lot of legends from the ZB network”.
Asked on air if the second vote could have been a reflection on his leadership, Luxon was self-aware: “I think it’s a reflection on mistakes that I’ve made. If I think about that two-week period, I’ve made mistakes. You know, ideally, those remarks I made in Rotorua I could have expressed myself a hell of a lot better. I took responsibility for that.
“I also need to acknowledge there are things I need to do better. I need to be better at communicating where we’re going, what our policies are, the record that we’ve already had in Government. You know, I’ve got to step that up. That’ s on me.”
Mike was having none of the mea culpa stuff.
He blended his actual and assumed roles: “Without being a psychiatrist or a psychologist about this, in the room on Friday, people loved you, and that’s not a political statement. You’re a good guy, gave a great speech and people loved it. And a number of people turned around to me, quite a lot of people turned around to me and said ‘Why don’t we see more of THAT?’”.
Reaffirmed, Luxon took his chance: “Well that’s who I am, right? If you see me out in a Nelson town hall or if you see me out on podcasts that are often longer format talking about myself … my background and how it’s shaped me and all those sorts of things, the way I engaged with my Air New Zealand stuff. That’s the same me.
“The challenge I’ve had, or got, frankly is not as a career politician has been the political media in that scrum environment where you’ve got to land a 3 to 6 second soundbite and you’ve got to get the content right, convey some personality, provide some context for a decision … That’s hard. It’s really quite hard and that’s the media format I struggle with the most, and that’s what often shapes a lot of the public perception.”
His counsellor was again unwilling to go there. “Having said that, once again and not overtly coming to your defence, but you talk about the long format, last time you did long format you were next door in Kerre’s studio telling us how we’re going to reshape MMP. It’s not a crime. It didn’t strike me as a crime. It was an opinion.
“When you rule out the Opportunities [sic] party, as you look more and more into the Opportunities Party, they’re insane. Why wouldn’t you rule them out?”
Luxon: “Absolutely, of course.”
Mike: “So why did the MMP, the Opportunities Party, even if I give you Rotorua as being a bit over the top …?
Luxon: “Yeah…”
Mike: “It’s hardly a crime, is it, what you’ve done.”
Luxon: “But there are things. Rotorua was a classic, that’s not what I intended to say, a lot of people did understand what I was saying but some didn’t and they took offence to it, and that’s not what I intended to happen. And now, in a perfect world I would have perfectly managed that and got those comms perfectly right. I didn’t. And part of it, as a leader, I think you’ve got to admit ‘look, I’m grossly imperfect’, under pressure we all make mistakes, um and when I make them I should call it out and say so.
“But I think for me, I haven’t changed as to who I was coming into this job from the way I ran companies in the past or led large numbers of workforces. There are formats where I love getting out and meeting people and spending time with them.
“I have struggled, freely, with that 3 to 6 second soundbite of how you get it all together and project personality as well as context as well as the policy and content. So, if you’ve got advice of how I could do that better I’ll keep working at it.”
Help requested, but none offered in the moment.
Mike asked if Luxon ever considered ‘bugger it’ and walking away. Luxon perked up again, proclaiming: “I choose to do this job because I am connected to the mission and purpose of this country realising its potential” and explaining his hopes for his kids and “our grandchildren”.
Mike: “Hopefully that’s the end of that.”
After a couple of questions on the Act policy on the public service, the session was over.
In his monologue before the interview, Mike had given his professional assessment of his incoming helpee.
“I actually think last Wednesday [the second confidence vote] enhanced Luxon. It showed balls, it showed self-belief, it showed courage. Most of us like that stuff. In a caucus of 48, does he have some self-absorbed dickheads? Yes. But that’s not his fault, and it’s not a reason to be derailed.
“The big picture should never be interrupted by the trials and tribulations of the small thinker.
“By the time we vote this will be yet another non-event … If you are bullish, and I am, last Wednesday could actually be the making of him.”
