Michael Laws says he wants to scrap RNZ if he becomes the minister responsible for broadcasting. Photo / Whanganui Chronicle
Are we back in the 1990s?
Because Michael Laws is once again going to be on the ballot paper.
Laws entered Parliament as a National MP in 1990. In 1996, he defected to New Zealand First. Many will also remember his time as Whanganui Mayor, where he famously banned gangpatches.
He’s had a stint on the Napier City Council and recently he’s been serving as a councillor on the Otago Regional Council and a host on the online media entity The Platform.
Rumours of Laws’ return to national politics have been spreading for weeks now.
But it is possible his association to NZ First again will do more harm than good to the party.
With some of his first statements since the announcement this week, Laws came out firing and talking about burning institutions, metaphorically, to the ground.
He has his eyes on becoming Broadcasting Minister.
Once there, he intends to put Radio New Zealand “first on the chopping list”.
This type of bombastic rhetoric may appeal to some, including many of his listeners at The Platform.
But seeing a political candidate’s first promise to the electorate being a desire to not improve, to grow, or even to reform a public institution but to destroy it will concern many potential moderate NZ First supporters.
Laws accused RNZ of being politically biased when asked why it should be scrapped.
“The public subsidises $60 million worth of government subsidy when there is such dynamic competition in the media world, television, radio, all media across the world and yet we’ve got a state broadcaster that leans very liberal left.
“If Radio New Zealand was more representative of all New Zealand, the issue might not arise.”
This simply reads of someone who is agitated by the content on RNZ’s airwave, rather than any legitimate criticism. If RNZ, in Laws’ eyes, leaned right with its programming instead, would he still have a problem with it?
Laws’ comments also display an ignorance of the New Zealand media landscape, the difficulties it faces because of global tech giants, and the place public broadcasting sits in the wider ecosystem.
Not content with just swinging the axe on RNZ, Laws said he also intends to push for public service reform that would bestow greater power on ministers, taking it away from “non-elected bureaucrats who have woke sensibilities”.
NZ First, according to the NZ Herald-Motu Research Poll of Polls, now comfortably sits in the double figures for support.
Many would argue its increased popularity has come from appealing to moderate New Zealanders and attempting to position itself as the party of common sense.
Leader Winston Peters has again displayed his stateman-like qualities and campaign fire mixed with humour, which we all expect to see more of in the next few months.
Other recruits to join Peters’ team recently include former All Blacks captain Taine Randell, ex-Labour minister Stuart Nash and former National minister Alfred Ngaro.
The general consensus from political commentators is these three all fit that middle New Zealand mould, are well established names, and have personal support.
Laws, while also a household commodity, risks undoing some of that work with his polarising comments and controversial history.
