Claire Trevett: Irish builders, burqas, tall poppies? Yep, still mad

John Key. Photo / NZME.

Any hopes that this year will be less barking mad than last year on the political front are rapidly diminishing.

Winston Peters kicked off the year bleating about an influx of Indian students who also wanted to work so were snaffling jobs from New Zealand students and trying to get citizenship.

Prime Minister John Key, on the other hand, warned that restricting immigration would also mean fewer Irish builders. Every country needs more Irish builders.

Labour's Kelvin Davis spent the week batting off claims by Ngapuhi's David Rankin that Muslim extremists were infiltrating Maori ranks up at Waitangi and the time had come to ban the burqa there. This came as a surprise to regular visitors to Waitangi who had never seen a burqa to ban.

Davis dismissed it as nonsense and said Rankin clearly had heatstroke. Census data also showed if the recruiters had been out they needed to work on their pitch - the number of Maori who ticked Muslim/Islam as their religion in the Census went up by just six people between 2006 and 2013 - from 1077 to 1083.

Key was also asked whether his spies had reported this Islamic State recruitment drive going on at Waitangi under his very nose every year. He replied that he didn't need the spies. They had outsourced the Waitangi Day component of their spying duties to him - he had been up there himself every year and had never seen a burqa.

There were hopes serious matters of state would take over when yesterday's State of the Nation duel kicked in. Key wanted to talk about hocking off state houses. Little wanted to talk about jobs, pioneering and standing.

He set out the things New Zealand pioneered: pensions, social security, public health, the 40-hour week, women's suffrage, state housing, nuclear-free stance. "We pioneered!" he announced. "New Zealand pioneered again and again!"

Then he set out the things he stands for. They included jobs, good jobs, skilled jobs, and well-paid jobs. He stood for a better way, a wealthier, fairer New Zealand, real solutions and the future. Somebody will need to get him a stand-up desk or he'll end up with hamstrings the size of a sumo wrestler.

But over in India, author Eleanor Catton stole Key and Little's thunder by delivering her own State of the Nation verdict. She had a good old dig at New Zealand - from the Government to the judges of the NZ Post Book Awards to New Zealanders in general.

Her comments about politicians got the most attention. They were "neo-liberal, profit-obsessed, very shallow, very money-hungry".

Asked about it, Key responded by pointing out Catton had publicly backed the Green Party.

He added he was disappointed she did not respect his work because he respected hers. She was entitled to air her view, but he was also entitled to respond.

The Twitterati didn't look so much at what he actually did say as what they had apparently wanted him to say so they could launch into him.

Immediately they decided he had tried to gag Catton and ridiculed her. He had done nothing of the sort.

Nonetheless anyone who dared point this out was immediately sent to the stocks.

People were having so much fun with Catton's sledge of National they missed the fact she hadn't restricted her criticism to Key. She also criticised attitudes in New Zealand in general. Catton argued as soon as she won the Man Booker Prize New Zealand turned on her for her success. Some of her evidence for this was she had not won the NZ Post Book Awards.

"If you get success overseas, then very often the local population can suddenly be very hard on you."

She was also disturbed her award was treated at home as a win by all New Zealand collectively rather than her individually.

I felt the same way when I won the school sack race in 1979.

But that acknowledgment of national pride in her does appear to conflict with her first claim about resentment of her success. It also wasn't quite the impression I got from the overall reaction in New Zealand to her success.

Things might have been different in literary circles, I wouldn't know. But what I noticed in wider society was a hell of a lot of people congratulating her and buying the book.

I had taken that response as a promising sign New Zealand society had outgrown tall poppy syndrome. Nobody I know rushed to add "Man Booker Prize" to their CVs.