It was an astonishingly brutal tongue-lashing on air but it’s hard not to suspect there will be much more of it in election year as the mainstream media reflects the intense frustration the public has with a government perversely determined to give them more of what they don’t want.
Whether it is the widely despised Three / Five Waters project (supported by only 23 per cent in a poll); the merger of RNZ and TVNZ (22 per cent support); the compulsory unemployment insurance scheme (35 per cent support), or adding religion to existing hate-speech laws (after earlier proposals had been roundly rejected), the government’s policy prescriptions read like one of the longest and most bizarre suicide notes ever produced by a government hoping for re-election.
Alongside this, it has failed to give many voters what they actually want — not least a tougher stance on crime, and better health care and public infrastructure.