A strategically placed billboard that was part of a lobbying campaign targeting energy minister Simon Watts, captured by TVNZ's Q+A. Photo: TVNZ Q+A
"Dear Prime Minister: the rise in crime and antisocial behaviour since COVID 19 struck is stark and confronting. We ask that you please take urgent action to support recovery and retain our reputation as a safe city and country."
That was the message of a full-page ad in the Weekend Herald placed by groups representing Auckland businesses, accusing the government of failing to act on past promises.
It was almost identical to a similar plea to a previous PM four years ago.
The following day the current PM was the target of another open letter advert in the Sunday papers. This one - placed by electricity retailers, users and Consumer NZ - called on him to fix "a broken energy sector".
That campaign also featured on TVNZ's Q+A show the same day, and in a front-page New Zealand Herald story the next day, the Minister of Energy - the aptly named Simon Watts - acknowledged our electricity market was "not functioning as well as it should".
But it's not the first time that he's been singled out by a lobbying campaign in public.
In June, pro-electrification group Rewiring NZ deployed AI animation to turn him into a superhero in ads that urged the public to make it an election issue - and it used a billboard near the Beehive to make sure that he didn't miss it.
TVNZ's Q+A said lobby groups like Federated Farmers and the Sensible Sentencing Trust had used the same spot for the same reason in other campaigns.
But do ministers targeted by these ads even notice them?
"Yes, I do. On the way to the airport, out of Parliament and down onto the quays there - it's pretty hard to not to," National's Chris Bishop told TVNZ's Whena Owen.
But are campaigns singling out individual politicians in public really effective? Most ministers are also lobbied behind the scenes by the same special interest groups. Being hectored publicly as well could make them more inclined to dig in rather than give in.
"Lobby groups have always taken out ads in newspapers. Now they're moving it to digital billboards which can be up longer and can be cheaper," said Dr Claire Robinson, the author of Promises, Promises: 80 years of Wooing New Zealand Voters.
"They can be located at traffic lights where ministerial cars have to stop. It's probably a really good way of getting something under the nose of a cabinet minister who may not open the newspaper anymore in the morning to see it there."
"If you want to lobby a minister now you've got not only print, radio and TV - and you've got your own channels, social media and even LinkedIn posts. There's a complete industry in being able to disseminate your messages, hoping that one of them is going to get through," Dr Robinson told Mediawatch.
Politicians going multimedia
Politicians aren't shy about getting their own messages out to the media either - and have specialised staff to do it.
Journalists' email inboxes are clogged with media statements from ministers and MPs hoping that their comments will make it into the media's coverage.
And now they are going multimedia too.
Last weekend reporters got video of the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio greeting Winston Peters, along with a media statement, after an ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Malaysia, which was attended by Peters.
NZ First posted that footage on Facebook on the day of the meeting - and then there was another version last Tuesday featuring Peters looking statesmanlike, with a TikTok-type soundtrack added.
The same day the streaming show Herald Now ran the Rubio footage during an interview with Peters.
Should media be wary of airing images hand-picked by ministers' staff?
"Yes, because by using it they're essentially using party generated pictures and feeding the beast - and exacerbating the rule-breaking of political parties," Dr Robinson told Mediawatch.
"Anything that is generated through party social media channels really needs to be stopped at the door.
"But at the same time the media loses all perspective when a PM or foreign minister meets a US president or Secretary of State. In 2014, photos of John Key playing golf with Obama were splashed across the newspapers . . . and nobody asked who took the photos back then."
MPs offering mp3s
Recently reporters have also received sound bites from ministers along with standard media statements.
Last week, Associate Minister of Justice Nicole McKee announced anti-money laundering law changes to make managing property easier through family trusts. The release included a minute-long MP3 clip of her reading out some of the key points - and 'video on request'.
In June her office also sent three separate sound bites about the 'Three Strikes' law coming into force.
Why send selected comments rather than allow reporters to record their own in a media conference in the usual way?
"Quite often we'll put out a media release, then we get all the phone calls looking for a grab. Why not give a grab ourselves?" McKee told Mediawatch.
RNZ's reporters in the press gallery in Parliament told Mediawatch they wouldn't use audio supplied under those circumstances.
"I believe it has been picked up by a couple of radio stations but I haven't actually tracked it myself."
ACT leader David Seymour has spoken about bypassing the media because they "abuse their power to edit" and refused to allow ACT's ministers to appear on RNZ's Morning Report. He's even appealed for funds from ACT supporters to fund his own online media channels.
Is McKee supplying audio comments as a substitute for interviews or media conferences at which she could be challenged or questioned by reporters?
"That's not the reason. It's actually realising that our media are quite stretched - for time and for people," McKee told Mediawatch.
On that issue of the family trusts and anti-money laundering laws, McKee was interviewed by RNZ news after sending out the statement and audio.
"I've always made myself available to the media. Should they want a sound grab directly, I'm happy to give it. We just thought that this would help the media, especially if they do have those tight deadlines. And of course some have less staff now."
"It doesn't take me long to add a couple of 10-second sound bites to the media releases we put out. And of course if it is being picked up then it is useful to some. So we'll continue to do it."
McKee says she hasn't tracked which media outlets have used the supplied audio.
Another minister handing out sound bites with media statements lately is Associate Minister of Transport James Meager.
"Now is the perfect time to look ahead toward building a resilient maritime economy for future generations," he said in mid-June, announcing pumped-up investment in navigation services for shipping.
One week later, Meager sent out three more sound bites, about a funding boost for lifesaving.
Meager credits his press secretary, former Newstalk ZB journalist Blake Benny.
"He came to me with the idea that if we include some audio grabs with our press releases, it makes the job of producers and radio reporters so much easier," Meager told Mediawatch.
If so, it might mean not having to answer questions about contestable claims made in statements - or confront contradictions?
"There's always the option for journalists who want to ring up and press on some of the details in those press releases. I'm always happy to take interviews. The only time I decline would be if it's outside my portfolio or if I literally can't do them."
Few ministers ever issue statements on matters outside their portfolio - and Meager declined to say which outlets had broadcast his recorded statements.
More to come?
Before he became an MP, he set up an online archive of political ads - electionads.org.nz - with partner Dr Ashley Murchison, an expert who wrote a PhD about responses to political ads.
Some of Nicole McKee's recent media statements said video was available on request as well. Meager doesn't offer that - yet.
"But if we had the resources and that made people's lives easier then it might be something that we look into. I used to work as a press secretary and I think I wish I'd been smart enough to think of this six years ago," he told Mediawatch.
But he says he and other ministers will be offering the media more multimedia stuff in future.
"I'm doing a couple (of soundbites) this weekend for a couple of announcements we're making in the top of the South so hopefully they'll be picked up. In the weekend when staffing levels are lower, that might be a little bit helpful too."
Exploiting a week spot
Dr Claire Robinson Photo: supplied
"Political parties have always used new technology to try and get their messages across - even going back to Michael Joseph Savage in 1938 when he used film, which was a new technology back then," Dr Claire Robinson told Mediawatch.
"I think that the politicians hope that the time-poor media will just insert (the content) into coverage. But there's something deeper going on here because they're exploiting the whopping decline in journalism employment," said Dr Robinson, who is also the current chief of Toi Mai / the Workforce Development Council, which published a development plan for journalism in 2024.
"That decline is because of government-enabled inaction or policies that have seen that advertising money that used to sustain news media organisations go offshore. In the old days (they) would have more scrutiny and political parties are now exploiting that gap and creating their own media."
Bending the rules for funding the ads
In a recent piece for The Post, Dr Robinson said the public pays for political parties' digital media messaging - but shouldn't be paying for some of it.
"The rules are really clear. You can only electioneer using public funds in the three months prior to an election campaign. The rest of the time parties are enabled to create information, but not to electioneer with social media," Dr Robinson told Mediawatch.
She says the NZ First party publishing footage of Winston Peters in Malaysia as foreign minister on social media is an example of the problem.
"It has their party logo and is using Peters' role in his capacity as Minister of Foreign Affairs for party purposes. It doesn't say 'Vote for NZ First' but the boundaries are blurred. It is really saying our leader is a great leader because he can create amazing relationships with people."
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