OPINION:
So, Tuesday afternoon I get a text about someone wanting to come on the show.
I get a lot of texts about coming on the show but this one was from Stuart Nash.
He wonders why I haven’t called to talk to him about his stats on arrests of gang members. It’s a good news story, he says.
I think that’s fair enough, we give the Government a good session of accountability each day. No one holds them to account more than us.
To his credit, Nash is a regular listener and despite the fact he personally takes a fair bit of heat on this programme, he’s never run for the hills like some did.
I want to talk to him about the retail crime stats. That’s how these things work - he wants on, I see an opportunity to get a few answers about other matters. We set it up.
That, sadly, will be the last time he appears here as Minister of Police and if he could have his time again, would he text me wanting on the programme?
Part of his downfall is his desire to show he is doing the right thing.
And that is the sad part about yesterday. His heart and intention are in the right place.
The original reason we got him on this show years ago on a Wednesday was because we saw him as a centrist. In a party of crazed ideologues, he was comparatively normal.
And on matters like police, there is no doubt he is passionate about it and fully understood the trouble his Government is in with crime.
All he could ever end up saying though was that we put 1400 more cops on the beat. Would he personally have liked to have done more and been tougher? No doubt.
But in a Government like this with your Kelvin Davises and Andrew Littles, you’re hamstrung.
So, by default he turns up here and wants to talk tough. He wants to be seen as, at least, defending his corner. I ask him about charges not leading to judicial consequences and whether the judiciary is the issue. I ask that for very deliberate, and fairly obvious, reasons.
Often I can guess the answer but I hope for something a bit illuminating.
Yesterday we got it.
That, for all the consequences that came out of it, is the real world. Nash was being honest - of course he calls Andrew Coster. Wouldn’t you? Aren’t you frustrated at judges that are soft?
Police oppose bail to no effect, sometimes they don’t oppose bail, criminals walk and thumb their noses.
Yes, to do what he did is, of course, against the rules. And yes, he should have engaged his brain before he spouted off here.
But you saw the real frustration of a minister not getting what he needs to get in an election year where crime is out of control.
Say what you want about Stuart, but of all the people they could have lost yesterday, he was far from the worst of them.
As the year draws to a close, the Waikato Herald is taking stock of 2024.