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here are two words National leader Christopher Luxon probably regrets saying this week, and those words are βbottom feedingβ.
Luxon was giving a radio station interview when he returned to one of his familiar pitches, an argument that New Zealand has become negative and fearful, lacking in ambition and positivity.
Itβs not an unusual political message, and itβs not an unappealing one either. We would all benefit from having a sunnier outlook and more get up and go, if we can manage it. But not all of us can, which is why a welfare safety net exists.
But it is how Luxon chose to phrase the message that created problems.
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βWe donβt just do bottom feeding and just focus on the bottom,β he said. Instead, βwe focus on people who want to be positive and ambitious, aspirational and confidentβ.
BREAKING NEWS
β πΊπ¦Lying ex tobacco lobbyistπΊπ¦ (@rugbyintel) March 25, 2022
Luxon surprised by backlash at bottom feeding comment. Says everyone he knows uses it all time
We should not expect to hear someone who wishes to be prime minister for all New Zealanders writing off a minority of them as bottom feeders who lack drive and donβt contribute to the greater good. It is close to the ugly word βbludgerβ and reeks of a disdain for beneficiaries, the working poor and others who find it hard to lift themselves out of difficult situations.
Those situations have been getting especially difficult lately, as Luxon well knows, given his partyβs successful focus on the cost of living crisis.
Some observers heard Luxonβs words as a throwback to a more ruthless time in right-wing politics. In New Zealand and elsewhere in the 1980s and 90s, benefits were cut and the poor were expected to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
As that implies, the ideology had a moral dimension, equating poverty and benefit dependence with laziness. It saw unemployment as a problem for unmotivated individuals, not society.
More recent National governments have softened their thinking, and a form of compassionate conservatism became common under former prime ministers John Key and Bill English.
In fairness, Luxon probably sees himself in that compassionate tradition, and he has admitted he could have found a better term than the awkward phrase βbottom feedingβ.
Are the poor merely 'bottom feeders?' https://t.co/yZbLiYsFWt Luxon definitely thinks so and directly contradicts his State of Nation statement "Thatβs why Iβm proud to lead National as we work relentlessly to build a society of opportunity FOR ALL? New Zealanders
β Elephant in the room (@LetsGetPfizered) March 24, 2022
Critics will still suspect Luxon was merely saying the quiet part out loud in a rare deviation from his standard political script. Inexperience may also play a part. The βbottom feedingβ comment is the second gaffe for Luxon after his claim that abortion is murder, which cemented a negative impression for some women voters.
In two further interviews, Luxon attempted to clarify what he meant by bottom feeders. He didnβt mean the ordinary New Zealanders who are βdoing it toughβ, as he likes to say, but those who are abusing the system. He harked back to a point made 15 minutes earlier in the original interview, about Kainga Ora tenants who have not paid rent.
Under its βsustaining tenanciesβ policy, Kainga Ora has avoided evicting tenants and making them even more vulnerable. As former Housing Minister Phil Twyford said in 2018, βWe know that stable housing is one of the most important things for the well-being of childrenβ.
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However, unpaid rents soared to $9 million last year.
Nationalβs deputy, Nicola Willis, has criticised the approach as βthis idea that weβve got to be nice to people otherwise they might end up in difficult situationsβ.
But this isnβt a case of a Labour government being a soft touch. βSustaining tenanciesβ was introduced under the last National government in 2017.
In the meantime, voters will be watching Luxon to see just how much compassion there is in his conservatism.
However, unpaid rents soared to $9 million last year.
Nationalβs deputy, Nicola Willis, has criticised the approach as βthis idea that weβve got to be nice to people otherwise they might end up in difficult situationsβ.
But this isnβt a case of a Labour government being a soft touch. βSustaining tenanciesβ was introduced under the last National government in 2017.
In the meantime, voters will be watching Luxon to see just how much compassion there is in his conservatism.
