The only semi-public event on his schedule was to present the certificates to the deserving winners of the Otago Daily Times’ Class Act awards.
This annual celebration of southern scholastic excellence is a terrific event and for every one of its 25 years the prime minister of the day has come to Dunedin to celebrate with them ... barring the Covid year, when Jacinda Ardern zoomed in for a virtual ceremony.
A few dozen protesters were waiting outside the venue to give Mr Luxon a warm southern welcome but he caused some consternation by slipping in via a back entrance.
The police and the prime minister’s office only rarely comment on security measures, but it would be safe to say that the parameters of where a prime minister can roam are set by their protection officers rather than the prime minister themselves or their staff, and they are defined by the known risk on any given day and the location of any scheduled events.
As an example, on one visit to Dunedin by Dame Jacinda her detail was content to let her mix and mingle with Otago Polytechnic students on an impromptu walkabout. But on another visit the only glimpse of her that the general public got was a fleeting one as she slipped out of the Glenroy Auditorium and straight into a car.
Mr Luxon’s speech was an interesting one. As befitted the audience he steered well clear of his usual stump speech and eschewed political rhetoric, instead opting for some thoughtful pieces of advice to the young achievers about how to set about achieving their goals.
As well as being pertinent it also likely offered an insight into how Christchurch schoolboy Chris Luxon set his sights on greater things and succeeded in becoming Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. It’s well worth a listen and is posted on www.odt.co.nz
A rare miss
When the prime minister — in fact, when almost every political leader — comes to Dunedin, they always schedule time for either a media stand-up or a visit to the ODT. Usually both.
Obvious you might suppose ... of course they want their picture in the paper. Well, yes, but there are very good reasons for doing so.
While the Parliamentary Press Gallery gets to question the prime minister on a daily basis, provincial media do not have that luxury. Those rare trips out of town are the only chance they get to ask the prime minister about issues specific to their region — and heaven knows there are southern issues aplenty right now.
Such grillings also help party leaders keep in touch with what is troubling people outside of the ‘‘beltway’’ and are a chance to explain their regional policies and priorities: Helen Clark used to ask as many questions of reporters as she was asked herself.
There was no such time offered to the ODT on this occasion, and nor did Mr Luxon do a stand-up. No doubt some will think this is a big wah, but at a time when our leaders are more remote from us than ever, and more inclined to use self-confirming social media rather than face independent scrutiny, every chance to question power is important and valuable.
While I’m grumbling
I am about to review Back On Track, the latest in Victoria University’s invaluable series on New Zealand elections, and I must — once again — point out to New Zealand First leader Winston Peters that he is flat out wrong to say, as he has before and has done again in this book, that the media did not cover his election year Dunedin speech.
The ODT most certainly did cover the speech, as the front page lead. And if you want further evidence, in the above photo of the Dunedin speech, taken by none other than NZ First Taieri list MP Mark Patterson, that is me leaning on the wall intently listening.
We also covered Mr Peters’ Invercargill speech on that trip for good measure.
