MPs over the holidays

Poneke makes a plea for MPs to also take a holiday break and spare us from the non stop press releases which should start up tomorrow.

As Poneke alludes to, in fact the MPs are hardly working at all.  All these press releases have been written in advance and just have to be e-mailed out.  The MPs concerned just have to take the odd phone call generally. National did this quite well last year:

… the National Party unleashed a torrent, 41 between December 28 and January 15, the last day of the holidays for many people. It probably issued more, but its website has a technical hitch and is not showing any statements at all between November 27 and December 28, when there would have been scores up to Christmas Eve, so I was unable to count them. Some Nats seemed not to have gone on holiday at all, particularly Simon Power, battering away punitively about the Corrections Department and its minister; and Tony Ryall, a one-man accident and emergency department of health crises.

The reality is that media are short of stories over the next month, so releasing some stats you got a couple of months ago can get more publicity than normal.  And it really doesn’t interfere too much with MPs enjoying the holidays.  Their press secretaries though get screwed over as they do actually have to work to get these out!

In Government it is slightly different.  Government popularity goes up when there are no scandals, and everyone is happy in the sun.  So normally they are not as organised as the Opposition in cranking out the PRs.  What they do is just have one Minister who is the Duty Minister for all portfolios.

Now it is interesting to observe how different Ministers handle the responsibility.  You don’t actually have to plant yourself in the Beehive but you are (or were) meant to be in Wellington so you can sign things and go into the office if something big happens.

Now the more junior Ministers love being Duty Minister.  They love the idea of being in charge of the country for a day and will head into the Beehive at 9 am and spend the day as Lord of the Manor.  Closest they get to being Acting PM.

The more senior Ministers see it as a bit of a burden and chore, and have been known to be less than totally diligent about the application of the stay in Wellington rule.  One Minister did two days as Duty Minister from his holiday home in the Marlborough Sounds.  It was Government by remote control.  Never mind he had no landline and no fax – the patchy cellphone kept him in contact.

So don’t feel too sorry for MPs working over the summer break – keep that sympathy for their staff who really do have to go into work!