Analysis: Christopher Luxon needs to look up John Key's recipe and turn his Tesla woes to Teflon.
Lately Christopher Luxon has been talking about Teslas a lot, but not in the way he perhaps hoped to. He’d hoped to make mincemeat of the Government not properly targeting spending, by highlighting that - in the National Party’s view - Labour’s Clean Car Discount just subsidised “wealthy Tesla drivers”.
Well, then we found out there is a Tesla at Christopher Luxon’s home in Auckland, which in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing, depending on your personal taste in cars.
A few issues were raised - first, that while saying the Government was subsidising wealthy Tesla drivers, Luxon flicked an email to the Parliamentary Service saying: Yes thank you, I will take you up on that right I am afforded, as Leader of the Opposition, for you to buy me a self-driven car - I’ll have a Tesla thanks.
According to the Herald, Luxon quickly backed up on the order when staffers and at least one senior MP advised him it perhaps wouldn’t be the best look. Luxon disputes this, saying he changed his mind, deciding was happy with his personally-owned scooter in Wellington.
Then, Newshub raised the Luxon family Tesla, and the fact the Clean Car Discount appeared to have been claimed on their Model Y Tesla, a replacement for an earlier Model 3.
He'd previously said he'd owned the Model 3, before then saying it was owned by his wife.
Newshub ran the Model Y plate, and found someone had applied for the Clean Car Discount for it.
He said it wasn't an issue as it wasn't his - it was his wife's.
Today on TVNZ’s Breakfast Luxon appeared to squirm under questioning about it, saying again it was his wife’s Tesla and his family are off limits and didn’t sign up to be a politician - he did.
The National leader has previously criticised the policy, saying it only benefits "wealthy Tesla owners". (Source: Breakfast)
That’s correct, but absolutely no-one is criticising Amanda Luxon for owning a Tesla.
They’re calling out her husband, Christopher Luxon, the Leader of the Opposition, for the perceived hypocrisy of criticising the Clean Car Discount while, as it appears, benefiting from it.
It’s splitting hairs to say the car is technically owned by his wife. The Luxon household owns a Tesla. He drives it. His family coffers would have benefited from the rebate. Voters can see through it, they know a cop out when they see one.
It also cheapens the genuine criticism of when politicians' families are targeted. This is not what is happening here.
Luxon also didn’t deny the hypothetical that if he were to personally buy a Tesla, he would apply for the discount.
Anyone would - it’s $8000 returned to the back pocket. There’s a cost of living crisis on. You can buy at least two punnets of off-season blueberries for that.
It’s the same reason some wealthy retirees don’t opt out of the winter energy payment even if they don’t desperately need it to survive the season. As Luxon said, it’s a government policy - and fair cop, we all work within those rules and get what we can, where we can.
But what it does raise is - yet again - the political nous, or lack thereof, to either avoid this mess, or do what John "Teflon" Key - who Luxon has supposedly studied at the feet of - would do.
Own it.
Own the Tesla (even if it's not technically in your name). Own the (perceived) hypocrisy.
Say 'yep, this is my point, rich people like me benefit from this and I don’t believe that’s fair, and I want to change it. And I will, if you vote for me'.
This approach could have been applied with his "wet, whiny" and the "have more babies" comments. It's the bumbling back steps that could undermine voters' confidence in him, because it makes him look like he doesn't back himself.
Luxon’s mentor Key, arguably one of our most popular prime ministers, had a knack for staying cool under pressure, seemingly able to rise above any gotcha kerfuffle such as this. Key would often pour cold water over a bubbling scandal by staring it right in the face, shrugging and walking away.
But with Luxon, all the public is seeing is a guy who says he’s ready to be prime minister but can't own his issues, let alone the family Tesla.
It's hot in the political kitchen, so if you want to be prime minister, non-stick is the way to go.
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