The Tribune

By Malcolm Strachan

IF the government wanted to move on from issues surrounding press access, it didn’t make a convincing case to talk about anything else this week.

After a ham-fisted attempt to bring an end to discussion over Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis blurting out that he left quarantine by press secretary Clint Watson simply saying that the government wanted “to put this to rest” without Mr Davis actually answering questions about it, and then blocking reporters from being able to quiz ministers on the way to Cabinet, you would think the government would convincingly push on with its agenda to try to change the topic. It didn’t manage that either.

The shame is there were some good things to talk about this week if the government wanted to do so. The most significant of those is the drafting of a bill to address gender violence – including the long-standing issue of marital rape.

In the wake of the death of Heavenly Terveus at the hands of her boyfriend, the issue has been brought to the fore once again – so the drafting of an actual bill to tackle the matter could well have taken the spotlight.

This announcement too though seems to have been fumbled a little. It was announced by Minister of State for Social Services and Urban Development Lisa Rahming rather than by, say, the Prime Minister himself – and officials were soon stepping back from the inclusion of marital rape in the bill, or even that it is something the administration has agreed to.

Other positive news – such as the apparent reduction in the size of the deficit - similarly didn’t move matters on.

Indeed, we ended up back at the same old discussion – with Mr Watson defending the decision to prevent the press from questioning ministers by limiting entry.

He insisted he was happy that clips showing him railing against barriers being put up when he was on the other side of them by saying it “identifies my passion about ensuring that media have access to government officials”, despite photographs showing the cones put in place to stop the media from having that very access.

“That indeed is why I took this job to ensure that you have access,” said the man who was defending the reduction of access.

Instead, Mr Watson seems to be suggesting a system where “our press team stands ready and able to ensure that those persons that are needed for interviews are brought… before they go to the Cabinet room”. Is the press team in charge of ministerial movements now?

So here we are, with a Prime Minister who hasn’t addressed the questions that remain, and a press secretary limiting access to other ministers who might have been able to move the topic on to something else. Is it any wonder the government seems like it is going nowhere fast?

The problem is if the government doesn’t push forward, these matters are not going to go away.

You only need to look across the sea to the United Kingdom, where the Prime Minister Boris Johnson is so mired down in false statements and unanswered questions over breaches of COVID lockdown rules that it looks fairly likely to lead to the end of his time as leader.

The government there cannot move on, because every time it tries to do so, another revelation drags it back to the same old argument. Every incorrect statement has people harking back to Mr Johnson’s denials of parties taking place in the Prime Minister’s office only for it to have turned out that he was at parties there, eating birthday cake and drinking beer.

As Mr Johnson has learned, once the public trust has gone, it’s impossible to move forward.

Despite Mr Davis’ apparent breach of quarantine and bid to keep it secret, the situation isn’t irretrievable here – but following up his failure to answer questions by hiding ministers away behind a screen of unelected appointed officials certainly doesn’t help matters.

This should be simple – just say that preventing the media from approaching the ministers was a mistake that wouldn’t be repeated in future, and move on, coupled with a positive announcement about legislation the government intends to bring. Mr Watson having doubled down on the move suggests that won’t be the way forward.

A government shouldn’t be above being questioned – that’s a surefire way to lose the public trust. There’s time to turn this around, but is there the will to do so? A government that is unanswerable and unaccountable may soon find it is unelectable.