Mike's Minute: A Land Rover drive isn't a crisis

Like most things in life, there is nuance and subtlety that is lost along the way. 

David Seymour is of a personality that undoubtedly gets up the noses of some. He might even bother the Prime Minister periodically. 

But his Land Rover Escapade is not a sackable offence. Neither is his letter written, not as a minister, for Polkinghorne a sackable offence. Even if you want to combine them and throw in the Treaty Principals Bill because he's agitated people with it, he is still not in sackable territory, nor indeed anywhere close. 

Here is the simple truth about MMP: why do we still report it like FPP and they're all in the same party? 

Could the Prime Minister sack David Seymour from Cabinet? I guess, but then what would happen? The end of the Government.  

Is he going to do that? No, he is not. 

When companies take over other companies there is often a clean out of talent. When a new CEO arrives the same thing often applies. The business of running a country in an MMP environment is unique. You don’t merge or take over, you coalesce. 

You are individual entities who agree on a series of ideas and a level of cooperation. It won't go perfectly. It might not even go swimmingly, because at no stage did you ever merge into one. You always remained, in this case, as three. 

When Chris Hipkins calls yet again for a sacking —and surely we are bored witless with that tactic— he tells us that not since the 80's and Lange and Prebble have we seen in-fighting like this.  

He is of course wrong. He forgets Peters and Shipley, and Peters and Bolger, and Anderton and Clark, and Kopu and Shipley, and the NZ First Tight Five. He forgets a vast swathe of our local and recent history and, not just that, he forgets Prebble and Lange were in the same party. Seymour and Luxon are not. 

In many respects we are lucky with this current line up. In a small country coalition choice is limited. In Spain and Germany where they have recently stretched the bounds of credibility in forming deals, they have collapsed.  

This deal won't collapse. The majority of the time there is cordiality, respect, and productivity. But reportage doesn’t appear to feature those aspects. 

The great frustration I have with the Hipkins approach and the coverage of this frippery is that this is a time of tremendous importance on serious matters.  

This country is a mess, and it is in desperate need of addressing. The side show game increasingly looks from another age and also childish. 

If Seymour, Peters, or Luxon is on the phone to the Governor General to dissolve arrangements then come back to me.  

But stunts and a bit of personality back and forward is a day at the office, not a lead story and certainly not a crisis. 

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