While Nicola Willis wins plaudits for her handling of the fuel crisis, her boss is facing questions about his absence from his government\u2019s biggest test, writes Catherine McGregor in today\u2019s excerpt from The Bulletin.<\/p>\n
To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday,\u00a0sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Is the PM leading on the fuel crisis?<\/p>\n The verdict from commentators over the past few days has been consistent: Christopher Luxon has been conspicuously absent from his own government\u2019s fuel crisis response. \u201cA crisis has the potential to make a prime minister, but Christopher Luxon is missing in action,\u201d\u00a0writes Stuff\u2019s Jenna Lynch<\/a>, anchoring her analysis around a symbolic image: while finance minister Nicola Willis and associate energy minister Shane Jones fronted a fuel announcement on Friday, Luxon was in Christchurch at the opening of the city\u2019s new sports stadium.\u00a0Tracy Watkins at the Sunday Star-Times<\/a>\u00a0agrees, arguing the crisis seems \u201ctailor-made\u201d for the business-minded Luxon, yet he\u2019s wasting his opportunity to show leadership just months out from the election.<\/p>\n Marc Daalder at Newsroom<\/a>\u00a0also highlights Luxon\u2019s absence on Friday, and his ceding the floor to Willis at the fuel relief announcement a few days earlier. \u201cArguably,\u201d Daalder writes, \u201cit is Luxon who has been sidelined on the response.\u201d Perhaps the most acerbic commentary comes in the form of a headline to\u00a0Henry Cooke\u2019s column in The Post<\/a>, which asks: \u201cCan Christopher Luxon be more than Nicola Willis\u2019 press sec?\u201d<\/p>\n Willis\u2019s moment<\/p>\n The flipside of the Luxon critique is near-universal acclaim for his finance minister. In an editorial,\u00a0The Weekend Post puts it plainly<\/a>: \u201cwhere she is crisp, he is waffly\u201d. The paper notes that on Friday, Willis\u2019s communication style \u201cseemed contagious\u201d \u2013 even Shane Jones reined in his \u201csometimes ponderous verbosity\u201d. Lynch writes that Willis is \u201cacross every detail of the response\u201d, leading a ministerial oversight group and the public messaging simultaneously. She has proved \u201cshe is highly capable of a prime ministerial-level crisis response. In a leadership void, she has stepped up to the plate.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNicola Willis is having a very good crisis,\u201d writes Cooke. \u201cYou may think the Government should be doing more or less or something different, but it is hard to watch her talk about it without getting the sense she is across the issue, concerned about it without panicking, and thinking through several ways the crisis could go from here.\u201d<\/p>\n A narrow political path<\/p>\n Daalder\u2019s Newsroom piece also discusses the challenge for the government in handling the crisis effectively. The obvious political silver lining is that by demonstrating strong leadership, National could boost its chances in November. That will require the public to believe there\u2019s a real crisis to be addressed, Daalder writes. \u201cBut over-egging a crisis which may not eventuate carries its own risks too\u201d, such as encouraging panic-buying of fuel. The government \u201cmust demonstrate it is leading well in a crisis without talking one into being.\u201d<\/p>\n A different but related challenge is faced by Luxon, whose fortunes could depend on whether he is seen taking charge of the situation. \u201cIf there is political advantage to be reaped,\u201d Daalder concludes, \u201cLuxon will need to show up to gather it.\u201d<\/p>\n Don\u2019t mention the pandemic<\/p>\n Another notable aspect of the past 10 days has been the government\u2019s near-obsessive determination to avoid any visual or rhetorical resemblance to Labour\u2019s pandemic response.\u00a0The Spinoff\u2019s Toby Manhire<\/a>\u00a0catalogued the lengths taken at last Tuesday\u2019s fuel relief announcement, including using the Beehive Banquet Hall rather than the more fit-for-purpose theatrette. The three Ts with which the government branded its relief package \u2013 timely, targeted, temporary \u2013 came with, Manhire noted drily, \u201czero Covid\u201d.<\/p>\n