Take me to your leader

Our new political leaders got off on the wrong foot this week with the political press pack by keeping them at arm's length over their negotiations to from the new government. Was this a genuine media freedom issue with the interests of the public at stake? Or just a bit of collective posturing to pressure the politicians? Our new political leaders got off on the wrong foot this week, with the political press pack by keeping them at arm's length over their negotiations to from the new government. Was this a genuine media freedom issue with the interests of the public at stake? Or just a bit of collective posturing to pressure the politicians? "This is what we've been reduced to," said RNZ's deputy political editor Chris Bramwell in 2017, alongside a photo of Press Gallery colleagues pressed up against a Beehive garage door trying to get a peek at who was coming or going. Back then, political reporters doorstepped politicians to ask who would be dealing with whom to form a government after the election - and tracked their movements for hints about what might be going on behind closed doors."Soon the monarch butterfly will emerge," New Zealand First MP Shane Jones told a media scrum that formed around him on one of those days. RNZ's political reporter (now deputy editor) Craig McCulloch turned the saga into a children's story.At the time, former political editor turned lawyer Linda Clark said the press pack's pursuit of the politicians was driven by FOMO - fear of missing out - rather than the need to know. Others said it felt like 1996 all over again - and the 43 days spent 'waiting for Winston' after the first MMP election. "If there was radio silence, people would be asking what was going on. This is actually MMP and how it works in action," Bramwell told Mediawatch in 2017, defending the media's stakeout tactics. "In 1996, they probably had one deadline a day. This time there was more information and more transparency about when things were going to happen," she said.Now in 2023 - history is repeating. Last Thursday, the political press pack was again badgering the New Zealand First leader at Wellington's airport with questions that he didn't even acknowledge, let alone answer. TVNZ put a video of it up on YouTube marking each of the 27 futile requests. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS1svPVRUa8New Zealand First went into a select committee room at Parliament but more media questions were shut down by the party's president and TV cameras were banned from an area where they're usually allowed. …Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details