Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: It took courage for Goldsmith to turn up to the Silver Scrolls

Now, there's a headline today that deserves a little bit of chat. It's this. Silver Scrolls. Why does Paul Goldsmith keep turning up to these things? And the reason for that headline is that Paul Goldsmith went to the Silver Scroll Awards last night and yet again, the musicians gave him a hard time. Madeline Sami, who is the emcee, got up and started off with You're Brave. And then Rob Ruha got up to get an award and he said, kick these punks out. And then Don McGlashan, who, you know, Don McGlashan, he gets feisty about the stuff from time to time. He said, send these ideas back to the dark ages where they belong. And Paul had to sit there in the audience taking it. And every time his name was mentioned, according to this particular report, someone in the audience made retching noises. So he went home early. And frankly, who can blame him for going home early? Because he copped it. Remember, this is a pattern now. He copped it at the Tate Music Prize in May. He copped it at the AMAs from Linda Topp mid-year. And frankly, not everyone can take that kind of heat without reacting or crumbling. I mean, just think about Chris Bishop, who went along and got a bit mouthy because the protest flags were up at another music event. Personally, I actually think Paul Goldsmith deserves respect for turning up despite the heat. He should turn up. That is what politicians and ministers have to do. Politicians should have the courage of their convictions to, if they make decisions that people don't like, still face those people and hear what they've got to say about it. But it does take some courage to do that. That's hard to do. It's an interesting contrast, I think, to the admission this week from Jacinda Ardern's former pressman. that the real reason, the real reason that she gave up doing the Mike Hosking media interviews was because he wasn't being nice enough to her. So, contrast that to Paul Goldsmith, and rather than asking why does he keep turning up to these things, maybe the comment should be, good on him for turning up to these things.