Don’t feel bad if you weren’t. I certainly hope the families and friends of the deceased received some comfort from Ardern’s gesture of sympathy, and it’s not that I don’t possess any sympathy myself, because I do. It’s just that my sympathy was overtaken by frustration at how good Ardern is at milking political mileage out of disasters, natural or otherwise (but still macabre) while neglecting to keep the CoL on track or keep promises.
The Greens are driving us mad by focusing on crazy ideas, children are still living in poverty, the housing shortage is still there, the sick are no better off because hospitals are struggling with staffing and financial shortages, beneficiaries are trapped in the poverty cycle, roads are more congested than ever (while newly constructed cycle lanes are unused), the farming backbone of the economy is frustrated, money is disappearing down the drain to nowhere quicker than ever and a national surplus has become a huge deficit.
The one attribute our prime minister amply possesses is empathy. Take that away and what is left? Ardern’s empathy is selective, not directed at struggling long standing residents, instead she directs it at visitors and recent immigrants. New blood to bring into the voting fold?
The only hope on the horizon is that next year’s election follows the backwash of a worldwide trend toward conservative politicians. These are people who exercise common sense and shy away from the loony lefties, but unfortunately they are in short supply here. Which brings us to another problem – who to vote for without wasting precious votes?
We have just under a year for the National Party to come to its senses and meet the demand for sensible politicians, unafraid to represent conservative voters. At the moment it’s slim pickings with David Seymour the lone voice opposing the CoL. He is the only person countering efforts to shut down free speech, indoctrinate children and refusing to bow and scrape to the misguided directives of the anti-Semitic UN and the ridiculous demands that we willingly agreed to at the Paris Accord.
Unless there is a coup within the National Party it is doomed to join the ranks of the also-rans and we are doomed to another term of wasteful, negligent spending and the erosion of traditional values.
