KEY POINTS:
When the Lions toured New Zealand in 2005 they brought with them a man almost as famous as the team. While the All Blacks trounced the Lions game after game, it was the off-field game by Alastair Campbell, formerly Prime Minister Tony Blair's spin doctor, that most intrigued
Richard Griffin.
Griffin, a former political editor for Radio New Zealand, press secretary for Jim Bolger and trouble shooter for TVNZ, recalls Campbell's insistence they would win, even after the writing on the wall was in flashing neon lights.
"On the Lions tour he continued well beyond the point when it was patently obvious they weren't even in the same league as the All Blacks. He just doesn't seem to be able to help himself."
Griffin is among many who see Campbell's ways during the Blair years as a risky form of the art of spin. They refer to his intimidation of the media, his refusal to talk to critical media, and Blair's edict in 1995 that political aides could give direct orders to public servants.
Most blatant was the "sexed-up dossier" when it was revealed Downing Street had allegedly doctored a report on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.
"It worked for a while, to give [Campbell] his due," says Griffin. "But you'd never get away with that sort of nonsense here. It's a small country. People have tried it but because we're such a small community, it's very hard to tell the Big Lie here."
Playing "favourites" with the media is also less prevalent, largely because of the small number of outlets. Jennifer Lees-Marshment, an Auckland University political scientist specialising in political marketing in Britain and New Zealand, says we have followed the British example, but only to a degree. "It's not that they don't do it here. They do, they just don't go as far and therefore it's not so problematic."
Mike Munro, former Press Secretary to Helen Clark, doesn't see the New Zealand practice as particularly vigorous, partly because the power of advisers is diluted by the direct access media have to politicians.
"I think Campbell became a big part of the news and that doesn't happen in New Zealand.
"It would be sad if we started to create the kind of barriers they have in Britain. It's not a good thing for democracy."
Most recoil from the suggestion they might engage in "spin". "What on earth made you think I know anything about spin?" asks Barrie Saunders, public policy lobbyist at consultancy Saunders Unsworth.
"I don't believe much in spin because it's a very short-term game if substance isn't behind it. Some may engage in [it] and everyone wants to put the best construction on their situation. But if they're not factual or leave out matters that are material, then they deserve to get whacked."
Parliamentary press secretaries won't speak on the record, but one says spin in the New Zealand context is "simply an argument. That's all it is. It's getting our view across".
Nicky Hager, author of The Hollow Men, an expose of emails sent by Brash advisers, believes the spin goes a bit deeper. While the media management of Don Brash was exposed by leaked emails, he says the same people who "repackaged" Brash have done it to John Key.
"In other words, he's a self-made man, a friendly millionaire who cares about Maori children and things. It's the deliberately manufactured image of a political leader and it was taken almost uncritically by people in the political realm."
Munro says, "I've always taken the line that 'spin' as a word is grossly overused. It's become synonymous with deception. But spin can be anything from a photo opportunity to selective use of information.
"It's a buzzword for techniques used to get good news across or cushion the impact of bad news. In the case of Alastair Campbell, it was attempts to intimidate a hostile media."
Saunders says spin from advisers will only get a politician so far. Instinct is a better tool, but harder to come by.
But as the next election nears, the spin-masters will be digging into their bag of tools. Griffin expects the party leaders to emerge as new characters over the election period. "There's always been a job done on Helen Clark at election time," he says. "Every election Clark becomes a warmer, more user-friendly individual than she is in her time in office."
But he says in New Zealand it's almost impossible to mythologise a leader.
"In small countries like ours, especially where we are all largely related somewhere along the line, or know someone who has known someone all their lives, it's almost impossible to be the 'hidden persuader' because there's nowhere to hide."
Lees-Marshment and Claire Robinson, a political scientist at Massey University's School of Two-Dimensional Design, think spin is seen as having a power it doesn't actually have.
"I don't think people can be manipulated," says Robinson. "A proportion of the population likes to think there is a Big Brother out there trying to manipulate our minds and make us believe certain things against our will, and that they do it by underhand means. I don't buy into that because the public is brighter than that and will always see through it."
Just ask Mike Munro. He cites the example of Clark's motorcade, seen speeding through Timaru as it tried to get Clark to a rugby test on time.
"People made up their minds pretty quickly about the Prime Minister's guilt and no amount of explanation or spin from the Beehive was going to change anything."
