Jacinda has a lot on her plate, most of it has her name on it and it doesn’t look too appetising. Some of it might even be going off. She looked like she might have brought some of it to the debate on Tuesday night as she looked decidedly off herself. Her opponent looked quite the opposite and was very much enjoying what was being served up. If things go on the way they are Jacinda might have to get used to the taste of custard.
The debate did not go well for her and most of the main political journalists picked (if somewhat begrudgingly) Judith Collins as the winner. Two who didn’t were quite predictable being Simon Wilson from the NZ Herald and Luke Malpass from Stuff. If it had been swords at dawn with Ardern left lying on the floor, she still would have won it according to these two.
As Heather du Plessis-Allan pointed out the other night, there is a key difference between the two major parties. Labour wants big government while National stands for private enterprise and the individual. Heather was fearing a return to the days of Muldoonism and the undoing of Rogernomics. She was adamant that this would not be in the country’s best interests and I agree.
Take COVID. The whole thing has been Government-run and the whole thing has been a shambles. As National suggests we need an independent body, responsible to the Government, running it. This body would give private enterprise much more involvement particularly in the area of isolation facilities which they would run. The body would coordinate the running of our COVID response instead of all the various departments now involved.
Jacinda made a clueless decision regarding the hosting of the Rugby Tournament. The idiotic rules she had in place have now been relaxed to allow the Wallabies in. Goodness knows why those rules couldn’t have applied to all the teams. This debacle has now become worse with the release of the match dates. What this means is that the All Blacks will be in quarantine until Boxing Day. It looks now that we are relying on Miss Kindness herself to let them out a couple of days earlier so they can spend Christmas Day with their families.
In the debate on Tuesday night Jacinda labelled Judith’s comments on farming as sounding like something from the past. Luke Malpass insisted she’d been misinterpreted. Maybe not. National has released its agricultural policy and there is a lot for farmers to like in it. Predictably Jacinda, whose knowledge of farming is akin to wrapping takeaway food, has treated it with disdain. Making a comment similar to the one she made in the debate she said it would take New Zealand back decades.
Having made the blunder on agriculture she quickly released something resembling a farming policy which contained some financial help for what farmers are already doing. Thursday was fancy dress day and the Muslim garb was given another airing as she unveiled a memorial to those killed in the March attack which is much more in her comfort zone.
Her border policy is all over the place in terms of who can get an exemption that is needed for work. As with her decision on the rugby, not to mention oil and gas and many others, it’s the economy and businesses big and small who are paying the price. Never mind, her understanding is such that she thinks that adding an extra day off and raising the minimum wage again while doubling sick leave is a great idea. She then expects us to believe that she understands small business. How many “yeah right” billboards does that make?.
The question has to be asked – is Jacinda losing it?
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