*But* ... the one thing Hipkins ought *not* to lose his leadership role over is stories about his personal life. His private business.

None of us are saints, especially in the eyes of puritan ultra-conservatives and crypto-conservative identi-Moonies. Every one of us has skeletons in the closet that scurrilous muckrakers could dig up as a basis to exclude us from political office.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/mediawatch?share=358d4088-5010-4c4c-91ba-ecd7538a2ebd

(3/?)

#podcasts #RNZ #MediaWatch #privacy #MuckRaking #NZPolitics #ChrisHipkins

@billbennett

I appreciate stories like this have always provided cheap, reliable filler for tabloids etc but the quality of content and even trustworthiness of our state broadcaster #RNZ has certainly deteriorated over the last few years.

Sad to see, I wonder if this is a result of funding cuts or editorial decisions.

@rnzbot_nz That’s a good piece of detailed reporting from #RNZ on some disgraceful, mean spirited NZ politics.

> By raising the threshold of "predominantly female" from 66 to 70 percent, the government effectively legislated several professions out of contention including librarians, probation officers and - the largest group - teachers, which have a 68 percent female workforce.
>
> NZEI believes that was deliberate. "Why else would you pick that number? I can't see any other reason for that shifting and they can't provide any other reason as to why it's 70 percent," said Kingi.
>
> Marilyn Waring, the chair of the People's Select Committee which investigated the change, agreed.
>
> "They would have known the exact percentage at which they lost another claimant group," Waring said. "I think they were greedy. Those ministers just had dollar signs in their eyes."

#nzpol