Political commentator Grant Duncan told The Front Page that many voters, especially women, are likely to see private behaviour, trustworthiness and family conduct as part of a leader’s political character.
“Labour is heavily dependent on women voters and if they’re, say, 30% in a poll, 35% of women and 25% of men will be supporting Labour. And that’s a big gap.
“That gender gap and party support are really significant at the moment. There’s a range of opinion out there, and obviously, I can’t speak for other people’s opinions, but there is a range, and some people who would strictly separate private life and public office, but in reality, in New Zealand, we don’t do that.
“We have seen people hounded out of office for often quite minor, private slip-ups in private life,” he said.
Duncan said while Hipkins has handled the situation well, he doubts the incident will be forgotten.
“I think we need to look back at the Don Brash incident. I know it’s going back over 20 years now, 2005, when he was the leader of the National Party, and he was unsuccessful in that 2005 election.
“There were a number of scandals.. The so-called ‘Brethren Scandal’, for instance. But certainly, Don Brash was pursued by the media quite vigorously about former relationships that he had had some time before that.
“And there were no holds; it was treated as a fair game by the media. I think the average New Zealander watching was thinking, yeah, I do think this matters to my confidence in this person as a leader,” Duncan said.
“He has since fessed up about those past relationships. So the information about it is now pretty public, but at the time, it was a pile-on against Don Brash.
“Len Brown, the former Mayor of Auckland, is another case. It was an affair, and it was outed by some right-wing political activists. There was a known affair; he was a married man and he used council resources in pursuit of that affair notoriously.
“My point here really is that it happened early on. That was outed early in his second term as mayor. By the end of his three-year term, he was unelectable. People had not forgotten.”
Listen to the full episode to hear more about:
- Private life, public office and precedent
- Where to draw the line
- Social media and politics
- Media treatment of scandals.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5pm. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
