Barry Soper highlighted in his column yesterday the absolutely shocking performance at Question Time by Simon Bridges which also proves that the hand brake is working:
Jacinda Ardern has in the past invited us to read between the lines, so with prime ministerial permission it was worth applying the exercise to a series of questions she was asked in Parliament’s bear pit by Simon Bridges.
National’s leader wanted to know, as we all do, about some big ticket items promoted by this Government – which of course promised to be the most transparent and transformational we’ve ever experienced.
Bridges began: When will we see a light rail announcement from her Government?
Ardern: As soon as we’re ready to announce one.
Bridges: When will we see an announcement on a resolution for Ihumatao?
Ardern: Again, when an announcement is ready to be made.
Bridges: Has a deal in fact been struck and if so why isn’t it being announced?
Ardern: Because there’s no resolution to be announced at this stage.
Bridges: What’s the Government’s position on the electric vehicle feebate. Is it dead or not?
Ardern: Obviously we consulted on proposals around clean car standards and once we’ve finalised that work, we’ll make an announcement.
Bridges: So was her Deputy Prime Minister wrong when he said, quote, it’s dead?
Ardern: I think what the Deputy Prime Minister pointed out was that the Opposition’s continually claiming that they had achieved particular outcomes from the Opposition benches was farcical.
That last answer was a little difficult to follow, but you get the picture.
Reading between those lines, though, and it was as plain as the smirk on Winston Peters’ face: We haven’t been able to persuade Winston yet.
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And all of that highlights several things. Firstly that Bridges is hogging tons of questions that Jacinda Ardern bats away easily. Sure, you can say Bridges is highlighting failures of the government and their promises, but in reality bugger all people watch parliament so the impact is minimal. But by using so many, arguably inane questions, none of us is any wiser as a result and there are fewer questions that other opposition members can use to drill into failures in other ministries. The issue is doubly compounded because National usually has a second crack with the same wonky tactics by getting Paula Bennett to ask the same primary question.
While I am talking about the primary question one does wonder why Simon Bridges and Paula Bennett think it is a brilliant strategy to use those questions when all they do is allow Jacinda Ardern to wax lyrical about some achievement or another unopposed. If you watch the videos it is the same every day, where the question is asked and then the Prime Minister gets up with a swag of papers, facts and figures and tells us all how wonderful they are.
It is utterly pointless for the opposition and only serves to prove that Simon Bridges seems to only exist as Leader of the Opposition in order to make a very average Prime Minister look competent.
The interchange does, as Barry Soper pointed out, serve to highlight that Winston’s hand brake is in good working order. Again you have to ask why the National Party strategy team seem to like to highlight the benefits of having NZ First as part of the government.
A better, and way more sensible approach would be to line up incompetent ministers for endless questioning rather than trying to always score a hit on the Prime Minister when it is apparent for all to see that Simon Bridges can’t even box, let alone punch above his weight. In fact, I don’t think he could fight his way out of a wet paper bag.
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