The ceiling surfing, said Munro, was really a \u201conce in a lifetime\u201d burst of high-wire journalism. \u201cThere\u2019s always been petty rules around parliament about where the media can film and not film. That\u2019s been around forever.\u201d So had a succession of speakers set upon \u201cimposing his or her authority\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What had changed more markedly, he said, was the direct accessibility of senior MPs. \u201cIn the mid-80s, you could walk into the Beehive very easily, and you could walk into a minister\u2019s office \u2026 If there was no front-of-office staff there, you just went and knocked on the minister\u2019s door, and hopefully they\u2019d open it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another change in the politics-media interface took place during Munro\u2019s time in the gallery. \u201cWhen I joined, you had press secretaries who were seconded from government departments. They came from a wing of Internal Affairs called the Tourists and Publicity Department. These public servants were very efficient, helpful, capable people, but absolutely non-political \u2026 That was followed by the age of more political communications in the Beehive. That era came with Lange and Douglas and co. So that was quite a big change, just not in the way politics was communicated, but for journalists, dealing all of a sudden with spin \u2026 Things came with a wee bit of a tweak on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clark and Ardern\u2019s contrasting approach to media\u00a0<\/p>\n
In his second life within the halls of power, Munro took up a job as Helen Clark\u2019s chief press secretary. Clark was already an experienced politician, but among many \u201chad a reputation as being a bit standoffish, a bit cool, and not always comfortable in front of the media\u201d.<\/p>\n
One of Munro\u2019s initiatives was to invite gallery journalists to dinners with Clark at his place in Kelburn. \u201cI just thought that Helen would benefit from that, and so would the media, in getting to know each other \u2026 We ended up doing several over a period of a couple of years, groups of about five or six political editors would come along and they\u2019d often say to me afterwards, \u2018Helen is quite a gossip, really, isn\u2019t she?\u2019 I said, \u2018Well, yes, they all are when you get them in the right setting \u2013 politicians like to tell a few stories about their rivals or challenges or whatever\u2019 \u2026 It was just about the journos seeing another side of Helen\u2019s makeup and personality, and I think over a period of time that had benefits for her and for them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jacinda Ardern was not so keen on that approach, to the frustration, for example, of Barry Soper, who lamented<\/a> in his recent book that Ardern\u2019s \u201cavoidance of the press gallery became a significant issue.\u201d He wrote: \u201cShe didn\u2019t relate to the messenger, the team of journalists who make up the parliamentary press gallery, and they didn\u2019t really know her. Even things like hosting drinks in her office \u2026 Her predecessors did this often. Ardern did it only once, a few months after becoming prime minister, then stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat sort of off-grid activity with journalists was just not something she was comfortable with,\u201d said Munro. \u201cJacinda was a very good communicator, and there\u2019s nothing wrong with her ability to get in front of journalists and show her personal, empathetic side. She was able to do that \u2026 I wasn\u2019t her media adviser, but I don\u2019t think I would have recommended [socialising with gallery reporters] to her. I don\u2019t think that was something she wanted to do, and also she wouldn\u2019t have been comfortable doing it. Jacinda could get quite sort of anxious about her media interactions, whether on or off the record.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked about how the public might respond to scenes of politicians and the media mingling behind closed doors, as well as the layer of PR across Wellington politics (Munro has also spent several years in government relations), he said, \u201cit\u2019s just the way that we act and interact as humans. It doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s politics or sport or business, the people who are at the pitface often want to get to know the journalists that they\u2019re dealing with \u2013 there\u2019s a lot of fraternising, for example, between sports rugby reporters and the All Backs management, there\u2019s a lot of fraternising between business journalists and the captains of industry in New Zealand, the heads of our big corporations. It\u2019s all about building relationships and one side wanting to get to know the other. I\u2019m not so sure if it would shock people that much.\u201d<\/p>\n An insidious thing<\/p>\n By the time Ardern moved into the ninth floor, of course, social media had begun its steady march to overtaking the mainstream titles in the race for eyeballs. The prime minister of the time was able to take advantage of that in communicating her message unmediated by the fourth estate, but it was increasingly a vehicle for misanthropy and misinformation.\u00a0<\/p>\n It was most pronounced, of course, in the Covid-era outpourings, but there had already been a sign of the nefarious potential in social networks in the wildfire propagation of lies about Ardern\u2019s soon-to-be-husband, Clarke Gayford.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cit is an insidious thing,\u201d Munro said. \u201cI remember talking to a minister one Monday morning when I was working for Jacinda. He\u2019d come back from Saturday night in a corporate box watching a Super Rugby game, or whatever, and he said that those rumours about Clark Gayford had been one of the main topics of conversation in the box, which was stunning, because in this corporate box, there would have been business corporate types, senior politicians, and yet here they were discussing this.\u201d<\/p>\n It came to a head while Munro was travelling with Ardern in Europe. \u201cWe were getting reports about the story, which was escalating in her absence. I got a call from the police commissioner\u2019s office late one night in London, who said, \u2018look, we\u2019re getting asked by the media whether we are going to say anything about the allegations.\u2019 They just wanted us to know that they were getting so bad that they were considering [issuing a statement], which is very unusual for the police. They don\u2019t normally put out statements denying they\u2019re looking into somebody. They tend to confirm investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey wanted me to know, and I couldn\u2019t be seen to be directing the police commissioner\u2019s office, but I just made it clear that that would be very much appreciated if they did that, because these rumours had got to such a point that it was just getting ridiculous, and it was causing a lot of distress, not just to Clark, but to the prime minister as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Munro had been forced to stand down as chief of staff owing to ill health by the time Ardern moved to quit her regular slot on Newstalk ZB<\/a> with Mike Hosking, but he did talk to her team about the decision. \u201cJacinda was finding her dealings with Hosking really, really difficult. It was stressing her out, having to go on that weekly session with Hosking.\u201d<\/p>\n His advice was \u201cwhy don\u2019t we just drop it?\u201d He said, \u201cthere will be a massive reaction for a while, there will be an overreaction from the media, you\u2019ll be accused of running away, etc. But all these things, this sort of news, it\u2019s always perishable. It passes \u2026 I just didn\u2019t see the point in her continuing it, because I didn\u2019t know how we\u2019re going to make it better.\u201d<\/p>\nHelen Clark and Mike Munro prepare for a televised debate at Avalon Studios in the Hutt (Photo: Nigel Marple)<\/p>\n
Jacinda Ardern wears her 2021 secret Santa gift: a Mike Hosking-printed mask (Photo: Instagram)<\/p>\n