Kerre Woodham: It's the Colosseum all over again

I had no desire to watch that debate last night.  

What was the point? I'd interviewed both leaders within the past week. I'd had the ability, as had you, to hear their vision for the country over an hour (commercial hour of course, I know you grumble about the ads). What they thought they could do right, what they thought the others were doing wrong. Rather than spend an hour watching two tired men snipe away at each other, I would much rather have spent it with my family, reading books, playing board games, having great chat with a six-year-old and a four-year-old instead of hearing recycled tropes from both sides.  

But the boss had a face like a twisted sneaker when I told him I'd nearly missed the last debate due to technical difficulties, so as a dutiful employee I sat and watched terrestrial TV and it was every bit as awful as I thought it would be.  

When you look at Chris Hipkins’ boyish face you forget that he can be a nasty piece of work. He's had to be. He was doing a lot of Jacinda Ardern's dirty work during the Covid response. The hard jobs, making decisions that had the most terrible implications for so many families. Dishing dirt on a journalist who was locked out of the country pregnant. He got shirty with her so out came the information that really he shouldn't have been leaking. He's not the sweet, wee boy from the Hutt who's found himself an accidental Prime Minister.  

But you forget that until the comment last night. That comment about a National backbencher in the bed leg, I thought, was unforgivable. Christopher Luxon quite rightly pointed out Hipkins had lost five ministers, when Hipkins doubted Luxon's ability to control a coalition government.  He said you won't be able to manage ACT and NZ First.  Luxon said will you lost five ministers from your own Government, you can't even look after your own party. Hipkins snapped back that at least none of my MP's beat people up with a bed leg, referring to Sam Uffindell’s confession of being a bully at high school.  

For the record, Uffindell says he doesn't remember ever bullying with a bed leg, but nonetheless. I know we can all say stupid things under pressure. I say them regularly. We can all say cruel things when trying to score points. I've done it and in one case I hurt a former friend badly, as a result, I've never taken part in a debate since. I think Hipkins should apologise. It was dirty, dirty pool and it reflected on him badly. 

Christopher Luxon looked exhausted and a bit shell shocked at the level of hectoring coming his way. I also found it really interesting reading the blow-by-blow accounts of the debate on both Stuff and the Herald - they were supposed to report in real time what the leaders were saying. Only the Herald bothered to report the response from a woman invited to ask a question of the leaders.  

Agnes Magele, from Auckland Action Against Poverty, wanted to know what both parties would do to protect and support beneficiaries. When Hipkins tried to say that Labour was the friend of the beneficiaries and had lifted children out of poverty, Agnes Magele interjected from the audience and said sorry, but in saying that Mr Prime Minister, Labour hasn't done anything to eliminate it at all.  

The New Zealand Herald saw fit to report that, and I think it was a valid point coming from someone who would know. Stuff chose not to.  What, they didn't hear it? Selective reporting? What? What is the point of these debates other than looking for cheap headlines? Thank God I don't have to watch another one for the next three years, and even then, I wonder if they're not past their use by date. They're not debates. We don't hear the core points about policy.  

It’s the Colosseum all over again with a couple of exhausted lions, snarling and tearing at each other and trying to draw blood.   

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