A recent Tiktok video showed director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield was not all about serious suits. Photo / Mark Mitchell
A recent Tiktok video showed director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield was not all about serious suits. Photo / Mark Mitchell
As Auckland spent the week in lockdown one MP's baby arrived, MPs were still forgetting about the mute button on Zoom, and Conservation Minister Kiri Allan had an unusual photo op.
Sunday: Hatched
Labour MP Camilla Belich and son, James Kirton Belich. Photo / supplied
New Labour MP Camilla Belich has had a baby boy, James.
James is named after Belich's grandfather,noted historian James Belich, and arrived at a suitably historic moment: Sunday morning just a few hours before Auckland's stage 3 lockdown began.
Belich and husband Andrew Kirton also have two daughters, aged 6 and 7 years old.
Kirton is the Government relations manager for Air New Zealand. On Saturday night at the hospital, Kirton fielded the call from Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson to give Air NZ the news that they were about to go back into lockdown.
Wednesday: A dead possum bounce
Beehive Diaries has seen politicians hold up fish, Tasers, guns, and bags of oregano posing as marijuana before.
But never before have we seen an MP hold up a dead, saluting possum.
New Conservation Minister Kiri Allan clearly takes a hands-on approach to her portfolio, visiting trapper George Kingi on the Kōwhairoa Peninsula.
She tweeted "Ole mate was warm when I pulled him from the trap".
Conservation Minister Kiri Allan helps out with pest control. Photo / Supplied, Kiri Allan Twitter
There was no update on what Allan did with the possum, but anybody invited to a barbecue at Allan's house this weekend might want to note that last week Allan highlighted goat control measures in Te Tairāwhiti by making goat meat tacos.
He's in the mood for dancing (or at least he was in December)
When asked if the Ministry of Health should be using platforms such as TikTok more in its communications strategy, Dr Ashley Bloomfield said he had no plans to make an appearance on it or to do a Covid-19 TikTok dance.
"It's the Prime Minister who dances," the grinning Bloomfield said.
Because Beehive Diairies recalled a video that directly contradicted the good doctor's statements: posted on TikTok on December 17, it shows Bloomfield singing karaoke and dancing with enthusiasm in a Hawaiian shirt.
The video has an anxious nation asking the same question: where did you get that shirt?!
Wednesday: What mute button?
The Auckland lockdown has meant select committees by Zoom again: and it soon became obvious some MPs still had forgotten the art of the mute.
Labour's Emily Henderson used the last question of the day, as the select committee was grilling RNZ bosses, to lob in a patsy question about how the Government's $50 million package for media had benefited RNZ, and had been received by others in the industry.
No Government likes people to forget the hand that feeds, and the question elicited a groan of "oh dear God" from National's Melissa Lee.
Then again, perhaps Lee deliberately left her microphone open. Beehive Diaries shares the despair with patsy questions.
