Duncan and Tova on Curran

Newshub reports:

Clare Curran has no credibility left as an MP and the Prime Minister should take appropriate action, says The AM Show host Duncan Garner.  …

“What more does the Prime Minister need to sack embattled, flustered minister Clare Curran?” Garner said. 

“What are you trying to hide Clare? Who knows?”

“Curran no longer passes the test as a minister, does she? Her credibility, crucially, has gone. She can’t be trusted and she’s a liability for the Government,” said Garner, before labelling Ms Curran a “walking wounded target”. 

As Duncan says, a test of leadership.

And in another Newshub story:

Newshub political editor Tova O’Brien says it was a “catastrophic” performance from the Minister, who has already been stripped of two portfolios and removed from Cabinetafter failing to record private meetings.

“Clare Curran stumbled and fumbled over questions she couldn’t answer, simple questions she couldn’t understand,” O’Brien told The AM Show.

“She had to have them repeated for her. At one point the Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard had to swoop in and rescue her and buy her time so she could catch her breath.”

He later had to force her to answer a question, which she again stumbled over. O’Brien says her response was an “appalling display” from an MP.

She says Ms Curran’s continued role in Government after her many scandals isn’t a good look for Labour.

“This is a woman who was the Minister for Open Government and she got busted twice having secret meetings with people. She’s still the Minister of Communications and she can’t even communicate simple answers to the Parliament about her communications.

Again it’s the PMs call.

Has been made worse by the fact the embattled Minister skipped question time on Thursday, which aggravated the press gallery.

I actually feel sorry for Clare Curran. Having a shocker day in the House is hard on you, and does knock the confidence. And I worked quite a bit with Clare when she was in opposition. She did take a genuine interest in the ICT portfolio, worked hard to get on top of the issues, and is passionate about the importance of the sector. I’ve always found her well intentioned, nice on a personal level, and it must be horrible going through all this.

But Parliament is a tough environment and Labour never held back when a National MP was in trouble. As someone pointed out on Twitter, Labour tried to crucify Todd Barclay (also a really nice guy) for a stupid mistake, and even get him arrested.