When Hekia met Rachel – a sometime interviewer’s perspective

In a May 25 interview on The Nation, host  Rachel Smalley asked Education Minister Hekia Parata "How Maori are you?" and, in relation to staff resignations, "Are you a bitch to work for?"

Ms Parata did not complain to TV3. But backbench National MP Tau Henare has posted a series of tweets demanding an apology from Ms Smalley for "Racist comments from essentially what is the left-of-centre media ... this is not about batting for Hekia, it's about batting for Maori."

TV3 director of news and current affairs Mark Jennings says the questions were reasonable. - Editor.

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I haven’t been blogging for the past ten days or so because I fractured a bone in my left hand and can’t type. It still hurts like hell but I’ve been drawn out of this enforced temporary retirement by my irritation over the attempts by the Right, led by National Party clown Tau Henare and assorted hangers-on in the blogosphere,  to make political capital out of two questions put to Education Minister Hekia Parata by my colleague on The Nation, Rachel Smalley.

I need to start by making one thing perfectly clear: I have not spoken to Smalley about this, nor have I informed TV3 Head of News and Current Affairs, Mark Jennings,  or The Nation’s producer, Richard Harman, of my intention to blog about the rights and wrongs of this issue.

I watched the Parata interview in the ‘green room’ at TV3 as it was being recorded and was hugely impressed by the Minister’s performance. When she returned to the green room to collect her belongings I said to her, “That was absolutely brilliant”. She smiled, thanked me and showed absolutely no sign of having been upset by Rachel’s question-line.

I had a similar conversation in the green room today with Judith Collins, who’d also faced some tough questioning from Rachel. “You are,” I said, “the consummate performer.”

It’s hardly a secret that my personal politics are to the far left. But I also have a 45-year provenance as an interviewer and media trainer and I’m happy to recognise talent in any interviewee, regardless of their politics. Parata and Collins are among the best performers in long-form television interviews in the country . They know how to handle themselves and that’s highly relevant to this debate.

In considering any question an interviewer asks, you have to take into account three or perhaps four things: the context of the question; the tone of the question; the status of the interviewee; and the capacity of the interviewee to handle the question.

ABOVE: The May 25 interview.

The context of Smalley’s “How Maori are you?” question was Parata’s childhood and upbringing in a Maori family and Maori community. It produced a revealing response from the Minister that was highly relevant to the origins of her philosophy as a member of the National Party and later as Minister of Education.

The tone of the question and later of “Are you a bit of a bitch to work for?” was neither hectoring nor offensive. It was light and good humoured.  Had it been put by a male interviewer, the effect might have been quite different.

And the question was justified. The standoff between the Minister and her Head of Department, Lesley Longstone, had been widely referred to in the media before Ms Longstone’s departure, as had the question of  whether the Minister was difficult to work with.

As to the interviewee’s status, Ms Parata is Minister of Education in the National Party Government. She has responsibility for the present and future education of the nation’s children. That status requires her to be answerable to the electorate, primarily through the media, for her actions and record in office.

Finally, has she the capacity to stand up to media scrutiny, to look after herself in probing media interviews? Well, if the interview with Smalley is anything to go by, the answer to that has got be a resounding Yes.

So it is unsurprising that she herself has not formally complained about the interview and has no intention of doing so. She was, she said, “happy to answer any questions put to me.” That does her great credit.

In a supreme irony, the real offence to Hekia Parata has been given by Tau Henare, other culturally precious MPs and the macho blogosphere of the Right, who clearly feel that this poor little girl, so “easy on the eye”, as Maori role-model Shane Jones put it, needs some great big men to defend her. She doesn’t.

Nor does Rachel Smalley need defending by me. She is without doubt the finest long-form interviewer in the country, including the illustrious Kim Hill.

And now it would a good idea if everyone concerned stopped twittering about nothing and, as I’m told they say in that idiots’ forum, STFU.

Media trainer and commentator Dr Brian Edwards has retired from posting blogs at Brian Edwards Media.