The Labour party in this Coalition government are fast becoming a huge embarrassment. They are leaderless, so Winston is doing what he knew he could do all along – simply toying with a bunch of rank amateurs. They are like possums caught in the headlights, nothing but a bunch of muppets dancing to Winston’s and New Zealand First’s tune.
When it comes to being politically savvy they are completely naive. As a result, cracks are appearing in the Coalition which won’t be of any concern to Winston. He’s got Labour exactly where he wants them, playing his game, and if anyone gets hurt or looks stupid he’ll make sure it’s them and not him. As for the Greens, who are they?
Ardern either doesn’t know what’s going on, doesn’t want to know or gives the impression, as she did with Mike Hosking last week, that nothing that is happening is any concern of hers. Sex here, sex there, sex may be everywhere but it’s nothing to do with her. Technically speaking she’s correct but she can’t absolve herself of all responsibility in the matter. A birthday bash with Daddy and a school girl looking photo on the cover of Vogue magazine won’t suffice as excuses for not doing her job. If she’s not careful she’ll be getting the sort of bad press the guest editor of the Vogue edition she’s in is getting in England.
Having had her CGT plans scuttled by Winston it appears she is now at odds with him on Ihumātao, which he describes as an unlawful occupation and says most protesters were not Mana Whenua. Speaking in Tauranga he also said the Maori Land Court, the Environment Court, the United Nations and Heritage New Zealand have all rejected the claims about the archaeological significance of the site. What business then is it of Jacinda’s to stupidly involve the government? We need to get on and build the houses.
There also appears to be some disagreement over the abortion legislation. Winston blindsided Andrew Little, not for the first time (they’re slow learners in Labour), plus his own Tracey Martin, over the possibility of a referendum. He then blasted Labour and proceeded to make out he was the good guy in a shambles of his making. He left Martin to apologise to Little and then said there was nothing to apologise for.
Mike Hosking hit the nail on the head when he said this was classic Winston. Mike went onto say there will be a lot more of this to come. You bet! I only hope National are taking note. Clever it might be but I wouldn’t want a bar of it in my playbook.
More broadly speaking Grant Robertson, when hit with what Westpac called a stunning decision to reduce the OCR by fifty basis points for only the fourth time, decided a dose of his leader’s so called posidividy was needed. Taking the ‘every cloud has a silver lining’ approach he told us what great news this was for Kiwis. The cost of living will improve, mortgage rates will go down and it’s now a great time to invest in New Zealand. He probably thinks that’s the real reason Adrian Orr did it. Perhaps he’s wishing it was reduced to zero. If that’s his thinking don’t expect an economic improvement anytime soon. Clueless.
Then there’s the dangerous Julie Anne Genter, the lady who hates cars even though she sports the initials of one. The car in question is upmarket and sporty so the comparison ends with the initials. She seems to have single-handedly broken the Cabinet Manual and also the belief that this is an open and transparent government. Belief in the latter actually expired some time back. She pens a letter and then in trying to avoid having to release it confuses herself and everyone else as to whether she was wearing a boater, a cloche or a dunce’s hat when she wrote it. The hat doesn’t matter but the resignation does.
And finally, the well-meaning Eugenie Sage. So well-meaning, as Leighton Smith used to say, we may as well all live in a cave and scrub ourselves with a rock. According to Eugenie we can’t dig, can’t explore, can’t expand businesses and now fishing for whitebait is in danger. The lady has a problem where her heart rules her head. All ideology and no understanding of the economy. No doubt she agrees with Greenpeace that we should halve the dairy herd.
To sum up, in the bear pit of parliament, on the government side, we seem to have a lot of Winnie the Pooh’s, ie bears of very little brain. Perhaps we should let them loose in the hundred-acre wood. I’m sure they’d never find their way out.