You have to hand it to Helen Clark.
Voted into Government after a crusade to bring accountability to the public service and state-owned trading enterprises, her technique of open accessibility to the parliamentary press gallery has ensured that she mostly gets her spin on the so-called scandals which have beset Labour - even turning some of them into assets.
Until last week's execution of Dover Samuels.
It is one thing to demonise business people and drive them from public positions - particularly if, like Television New Zealand's former chairwoman Rosanne Meo, they boast a private-school accent which is anathema to many of the reborn left.
Many in business sat back, seeing the Prime Minister's move as simply changing the guard: a quick head offered up as a signal to Labour's supporters that fundamental change will take place in the way the Government runs its commercial operations. And quietly grateful that it wasn't their own position in the firing line.
But applying the same tactics on home base invites wider scrutiny of Helen Clark's actions by friend and foe alike. The debate within the Labour caucus and Maoridom will quickly sharpen. So thanks, Mr Samuels, for putting your head on the block.
It is time now for business to ensure that its own concerns about the Government's political style are openly voiced in future.
Just reconsider TVNZ. Rosanne Meo was publicly demonised for a pending multi-million dollar payout to former newsreader John Hawkesby. But the digital television business case which her executives were building was also strongly criticised, even though the TVNZ board was working with the previous National Government's blessing.
Ironically, Helen Clark's ire would have been more appropriately directed at TVNZ's decision to sell its Sky TV stake. The sale was ill thought out, premature and cost the taxpayer a bundle by failing to achieve a commercial price for the shares.
Digital television is a foregone conclusion, and the sooner this Government gets back to directing TVNZ's board to protect the company's value as it develops a public broadcasting approach, the better.
This is the ground on which the debate on the Government's approach to managing its commercial assets must now shift - rather than mere political point-scoring.
But the Clark machine is relentless. Timberlands manager Kit Richards was quickly pushed out for campaigning against the Government's decision to axe West Coast logging of native timber. And Airways Corporation chairman John Maasland is another who has felt the fire of the PM's tongue lashings.
Again, they have had to suffer the ninth-floor leaks, barbs and accusations, without open support from the business community.
Gutless? Yes. But apart from fear of a prime ministerial tongue lashing, businesses have also been afraid they will face individual targeting by trade unions if they dare to speak out.
The picketing of Business for Social Responsibility evangelist, cereals manufacturer Dick Hubbard, is cited by many in the business community as the reason they hide behind the various players running organisations such as the chambers of commerce and employers and manufacturers associations.
But that is suckers' talk.
With the National Bank's latest survey showing that confidence is back down at levels not seen since the 1987 sharemarket crash and the collapse of New Zealand's bubble economy, business should continue to press the case for change.
Helen Clark's tough-marm tactics have also been applied to her ministers: Marian Hobbs and Margaret Wilson have been upbraided over their respective failures in broadcasting and labour law.
In Clarkspeak, Minister of Finance Michael Cullen had "the pants scared off him" by Treasury over the election policy to implement tax writeoffs for research and development. But even before that comment to an Auckland post-Budget lunch, Beehive drum was that Dr Cullen would be replaced if he could not put on a more friendly face towards business.
I am not painting Helen Clark as the source of such rumours. Politically motivated leaks are part of the arsenal of any experienced senior politician. Labour's right wing, which has been quietly gunning for better links with business, is quite capable of starting its own.
The Samuels execution does, however, rid Labour's right of one of its members through discrediting his reputation.
More fundamentally, by kneecapping Mr Samuels, Helen Clark has illustrated to the potentially troublesome Labour right - Phil Goff, Annette King, Jim Sutton, Clayton Cosgrove and Damien O'Connor - that she will deal ruthlessly with any MP who lets the side down.
The difficulty for Helen Clark is that she is now playing a zero sum game.
When a Prime Minister assumes overriding responsibility across all portfolios, she becomes vulnerable. If the economy fails to perform, Labour's popularity will decline.
In that environment, a Prime Minister will need all the friends she can get - in business and in politics alike. If Helen Clark knows what is good for her, she will soften her style.
<i>O'Sullivan:</i> It's time to soften up, Prime Minister
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