John MacDonald: Meeting the PM in the WC - only in NZ, but for how much longer?

Deputy prime minister Grant Robertson. Photo / File

OPINION

Many years ago, I went to the loo one day in the building where I worked, walked into the men's toilet and Helen Clark was there.

Turned out the men's loo was closer to the studio where she was doing an interview and so they told her just to use that. And I remember afterwards thinking "only in New Zealand" would you walk into the men's loo and find the female Prime Minister there washing her hands.

And only in New Zealand would you have any chance of getting that close to the leader of a country without being swamped by the heavies from security.

But, according to Grant Robertson anyway, that may all be about to change.

Because he's been saying that the abuse he's been getting when he's out in public has got so bad, that he's had to have the same level of security around him as the Prime Minister has.

And he has said that Labour is considering doing away with the public walkabouts during next year's election campaign because he thinks politicians are becoming the targets of such abuse, that it may not be safe for them to do the shake-and-howdy walkabouts.

You know, the stuff they all do - especially at election time - where they walk around malls and talk to people and pretend they're interested in what they're doing.

Judith Collins did a famous walkabout last election on Ponsonby Rd in Auckland. Actually, it was more infamous than famous because we found out afterwards that she'd planted a rent-a-crowd there full of National supporters.

But Grant Robertson says, next year, don't assume Labour will be doing it because it's just getting too dangerous out there.

But does Grant just need to harden up here and accept that - generally - politicians are fair-game and should expect to get a bit of a hard time now and then?

I see the Greens are chiming-in on this too, with co-leader Marama Davidson saying that the abuse towards politicians is of a "different, more violent nature" these days.

She's talking, of course, after the experience of the occupation at Parliament earlier this year where there was no shortage of fruit-loops and troublemakers.

But hearing David Seymour and Christopher Luxon speak about this earlier today, it seems to me that it's parties from the left that feel the most threatened.

Labour and the Greens are talking about it today - and remember back in May, the Maori Party said it wouldn't be taking part in the Tauranga byelection because of safety issues.

The party said then that a string of racist incidents in the city, and death threats, made them decide that it wasn't worth taking the risk.

And we've seen, haven't we, that there can be deadly consequences for politicians. Almost a year ago in Britain, Conservative MP Sir David Amess was stabbed to death when he was meeting constituents.

Also in the UK, Labour MP Jo Cox died after being shot and stabbed in November 2016.

And you could say "oh, that'd never happen here in New Zealand". But we probably used to think a terrorist attack on a mosque would never happen in New Zealand too.

Nevertheless, I think Labour is less concerned about safety and more concerned about what it would look like having rabid protesters turning up wherever their MPs and candidates go during the election campaign next year.

In political circles, they call that stuff "optics". Whether something is a good look or a bad look. And footage night-after-night on the TV news and day-in day-out on the internet of Labour people getting abused is the last thing Labour would want when it's trying to convince us to give it another term in government. As far as the optics go, that would be a very bad look.

Yes, there do seem to be more people out there who think very little of politicians and who are quite happy to ignore the protocols and give them an earful at every opportunity. And yes, things are generally a lot more unhinged than they used to be.

But I think Labour, and the Greens and the Maori Party need to accept that this is the reality these days - and, in my view anyway, pulling the plug on things like walkabouts has nothing to do with keeping people safe and everything to do with shamelessly trying to avoid situations which might not be such a good look during an election campaign.