“Our centre-right government—or let’s call it what it is, our CENTRE government”;
Matthew Hooton continues to run rings around Mike Williams
From the Left and Right, Radio NZ National, Monday 2 February 2015
Kathryn Ryan, Mike Williams (“The Left”), Matthew Hooton (“The Right”)
Matthew Hooton continues to run rings around Mike Williams
From the Left and Right, Radio NZ National, Monday 2 February 2015
Kathryn Ryan, Mike Williams (“The Left”), Matthew Hooton (“The Right”)
This is a time of crisis for the right wing in this country. From the most depraved and uncouth (John Ansell, Blubberguts Slater, Carrick Graham and co.) to the respectable and media-friendly (Colin James, Fran O’Sullivan and most National MPs) the right wing in New Zealand knows that it is not immune to what is happening overseas. The stunning electoral victory of Syriza in Greece was a worrying shot across the bows for the National Party in this country just as surely as it was an affront to Angela Merkel and her gang of grey-suited, funereal-looking thugs.
Then this weekend, with the right still trying to process the significance of the Greek election, the extreme right Newman regime in Queensland was unceremoniously tossed out by an electorate that seems to have been shaken out of the deep sleep it has been in for several years. Labour’s victory in Queensland follows Labour’s recent return to power in Victoria. And New South Wales appears to be next.
So they’re desperate. If ever there was a time to take advantage of this and put right wing commentators on the defensive, this is it. If only someone had the wit and the wherewithal to actually challenge some of the glib right wing “pundits” that dominate public discourse in this country.
It can, after all, be done; all it needs is a clear head, a bit of gumption and the courage to withstand a persiflage of harrumphing, inarticulate spluttering, outraged snarling and dyspeptic choking. Listeners to Jim Mora’s light chat show The Panel have occasionally been treated to the on-air dismantling of, inter alia, Richard Griffin, Mike Moore, Nevil “Breivik” Gibson and Michelle Boag. Their on-air spankings were delivered by, in order, Gordon Campbell, Chris Trotter, Gordon MacLauchlan, and Bomber Bradbury.
On September 3rd last year Dita Di Boni memorably reduced that insufferable bag of wind John Bishop to resentful silence simply by pointing out that virtually everything he had said was nonsense. And, of course, last week we heard Eleanor Catton’s father deal to the hapless Sean Plunket on Plunket’s own radio show. [1]
Sadly, though, on Kathryn Ryan’s show on Monday mornings, the “Left” is not represented by Dita Di Boni or Gordon Campbell, but by Mike Williams. We looked at Williams’ inability or reluctance to do his job last week. [2] This morning he was equally somnolent. No listener will have been surprised by this; Williams routinely lets Hooton get away with the most provocative remarks. Hooton worked out long ago that he can almost always say what he likes, without fear of being challenged by either the host Kathryn Ryan or by his ostensible opponent, Williams.
This morning, following a discussion about Queensland election, Hooton decided it was time to see how outrageous a statement he could get away with this week….
MATTHEW HOOTON: The lesson here for New Zealand is that our centre-right government—or let’s call it what it is, our CENTRE government—is the way to go….
He said this on a day when twenty pathologists have written to the Minister of Health to protest against plans to privatize pathology services in Wellington, and a few days after the Prime Minister announced his ideologically-driven plan to cut state housing services even more than they have done.
The Key government is selling our publicly owned assets, and radically attacking our health services, our education system, and our carefully built up system of public housing. Hooton’s decision to define this sustained right wing assault on our way of life as “centre” government, implying it is moderate or centrist, shows an almost limitless level of audacity.
But, of course, he knew perfectly well that he would be able to slip that one past Williams and Ryan. And he was absolutely right: Mike Williams, like Kathryn Ryan, said nothing. As usual.
