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OPINION: It was a passing strange post-Cabinet prime ministerial press conference on Monday evening. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins stood up to make some non-announcements on the very non bread and butter issue of lobbyists.

Then, in the middle of it all, broadcaster Sean Plunket lobbed in a question about how the Government and Hipkins in particular defined a woman. The usually unflappable Hipkins, clearly surprised by the question, looked a bit uncomfortable and ummed and ahhed, until he finally said that people define their own genders.

Plunket pressed, referring to UK Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who had said in the past week that he thought 99.9% of women do not have penises.

Penis is not a word you regularly hear in post-Cabinet press conferences with prime ministers. Who knows, maybe it was the first time? There was a sort of stunned silence in the room.

JUAN ZARAMA PERINI/Stuff

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins marked the official start of the winter flu vaccination campaign at the Queen St Medical Centre in Upper Hutt.

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The question evidently came about in the wake of the Posie Parker pro-women/anti-trans protest and is essentially an imported culture wars issue from overseas. In the UK, this is a live political issue heading into the election in 2025. In New Zealand, however, it was effectively put to bed in December 2021 with a law passed that allows for gender self-identification on birth certificates. It will come into effect in 2023.

The interesting thing about this is that there appears no real appetite among elected officials to get into a culture war on this issue leading into the election.

We asked Christopher Luxon how he would answer the question and he said pretty simple: adult female human. When pressed on who gets to define this he said there is a very small number of people who identify with a gender thats different from the sex that they had at birth. They need to be respected as well.

And so you know, that's pretty straightforward for me to think about.

In other words, not an issue for him. He was also at pains to point out that voters dont raise it with him as an issue when he is out and about.

It is clearly something that Luxon and National are trying to stay as far away from as possible. Whereas a couple of Nationals recent previous leaders, Simon Bridges and Judith Collins, would quite cheerfully jump into the odd culture war scrap, Luxon has demonstrated no such enthusiasm.

Indeed, within the National Party election machine there is a simple view on this: people care about their economic prospects and that of their families. And they are mostly live and let live. Getting stuck into no-win issues over gender and trans rights, which simply bewilder many, does not make the list.

Likewise, Chris Hipkins does not wish to wade into these waters. He too is a pretty live and let live character who wont want to be talking about it.

Neither the ACT Party nor the Greens appeared to want to turn it into a debate or an issue either. There are fish-hooks here for everyone, and its a very easy issue where someone could say the wrong thing. While ACT is obviously happy to wade into other culture wars issues especially around the role of the Treaty of Waitangi in law and society, for example this isnt one of them. After all, Parliament unanimously passed the gender self-ID law in 2021.

The UK has its own political context, including the tricky politics of trans rights within the UK Labour Party, which Starmer is trying to manage. Importing that into the New Zealand context is unlikely to head anywhere quickly.

Instead, the bigger-than-expected interest rate hike by the Reserve Bank on Wednesday which came hours before Jacinda Arderns final speech, brought the significant election issues back into relief. And that is inflation and the problems it causes, including significant interest rate rises.

While the Government is continuing to try to make the case that it isnt its fault, but a global phenomenon, National and ACT are trying to lay blame squarely at the feet of Grant Robertson.

It was a reminder about the very issue both Chrises are fighting to own in the public mind. The very opposite of the lobbying changes Hipkins talked about on Monday afternoon. Hipkins himself admitted that theres no evidence of any problems with lobbying, and it was really just a question of perception.

But lobbying is basically the epitome of a beltway issue, and about as far away from bread and butter as you can get. The political wisdom of making it the issue of the day especially after the Stuart Nash saga the week before had made Labour look a bit dodgy seemed questionable. Talking about lobbyists just seemed to reinforce that, conflating two separate issues.

While Hipkins himself continues to grow into the job, looking more confident, a bit of drift that characterised Labours past year has now kicked back in. On the central political question of inflation, Labour has had little to say, and sometimes you could be forgiven for thinking its not in Government with an absolute majority.

The challenges arent just internal. On Thursday afternoon tension within the Green Party which has been simmering for quite some time accidentally made its way out into the open when MP Dr Elizabeth Kerekere called Chle Swarbrick a crybaby in what appeared to be a case of replying to the wrong WhatsApp group.

Kerekere has been known to be unhappy since she was dobbed in to authorities for breaking Covid-19 rules while the Green Party's health spokesperson. And all has not seemed well for some months.

While Kerekere will now apparently be investigated, it is something both the Greens and Labour can do without. Labour needs an electable Green Party that wont spook too many middle voters into staying away from Labour.

It is this sort of peripheral issue that Labour is now having to deal with, not some sort of culture war. There was a relatively high degree of shock in Parliament on Wednesday over the size of the Reserve Banks interest rate hike and the fact that there now might be more this year.

Thats where the real political battle is.

Read more from the original source:
This election may be negative, but it won't be about imported culture ... - Stuff