One of the most comforting aspects of The Climate Change Commission’s latest report describing the roadmap towards making NZ carbon-free is that it has been left to Ardern’s government to implement. And as we all know, when Ardern makes a statement like “The Government will not hold back”, it almost guarantees it won’t happen.
I believe there is a warehouse somewhere in Wellington that rivals The Library of Congress as the largest library in the world, where the Labour Government stores its huge stockpile of reports that have been commissioned over the last three and a half years. (“The only reason I entered politics”) report to reduce Child Poverty, the Government’s Aotearoa Homelessness Action Plan, The Auckland Light Rail project, to name but a few.
Now you would think that headlines like “NZ ranked near bottom of UNICEF child wellbeing ratings”, or maybe that only 64.5 percent of 15-year-olds have got proficiency in reading and maths, or perhaps the OECD report that “indicates New Zealand has some of the worst rates of homelessness in the developed world”, or “New Zealand has the highest rate of teen suicide in the OECD”, or “New Zealand has the 6th highest teen pregnancy rate in the OECD”, or “New Zealand has the 7th highest rate of child homicide in the OECD”, or “NZ is 22nd out of 191 countries suffering obesity problems” might just focus one’s priorities? But no, the Labour Government have declared a Climate Emergency as its priority. Her “Nuclear Free Moment”. And this apparently makes Ardern the best PM in the world?
When blinded by the blinkers of a contemptible ideology, it is little wonder the country is fast approaching third world status. It is a shameful disgrace that our children, of whom many are the victims of the above developments, have been manipulated into protesting about climate change when their very domain is collapsing around them. Children are a cherished commodity and should be protected from political manipulation. It is the government’s responsibility to provide a stress free environment in which they can thrive. Climate change should be the least of their concerns, but under this Labour government, they are the pawns in a game they cannot win.