On Monday, journalists from Stuff tackled Prime Minister Chris Hipkins on his favourite pie. It’s steak, cheese and gravy, should you be wondering. With crusty pastry. 

Hipkins wouldn’t reveal who sells his preferred pies. “My lips are sealed,” he said. But we can doubtless rely on the news outlet’s investigative prowess to track down the Prime Minister’s sources. Or his sauces. 

Some might scoff at the media for focusing on such trivia as the PM’s pie preferences.  

But could there be more to the Stuff story than promoting Hipkins’ down-to-earth tastes in an election year?  

With the humble pie a Kiwi icon, Stuff’s scoop will doubtless provide solace to those suffering from Cyclone Gabrielle’s onslaught. Or those struggling to make ends meet in the face of the ongoing cost of living crisis. If low-cost comfort food is good enough for the Prime Minister, then to hell with the price of fresh vegetables. Or all that broken infrastructure. 

You can hardly blame Stuff for thinking about pies when talking to the Prime Minister. He’s had his fingers in so many of them. And not just now he’s the nation’s leader. The state of the public service and its addiction to consultants. The state of education and kids’ lack of appetite for school. The Police Commissioner’s allergy to policing. Hipkins may prefer baked goods, but aspects of his performance warrant a good grilling.  

Or perhaps reporters have been mesmerised by all the pie-in-the-sky. Like Auckland’s proposed cycling bridge (really more gravy train than cycleway). Or this week’s climate-focused transport policy statement, which disappeared faster than you can say Goodbye Pork Pie. And that’s before we get to the stratospherically expensive Auckland Light Rail project.  

Indeed, can we be sure that the pie revelation is not a taste of things to come? Perhaps a chain of government-run pie shops, with tax incentives to businesses that serve pies to their staff. KiwiPie anyone? 

Regardless, there is one pie journalists should be talking about with the Prime Minister. And that’s the economic pie and how to grow it.  

Now that would be food for thought.