From viewing the first day of Parliament, Question Time in particular, it is obvious nothing is going to change. Jacinda Ardern (Bluff) and Megan Woods (Bluster), the two motor mouths were both quickly back into overdrive. Both saying plenty but in reality saying nothing. A bit like a car stuck with its wheels spinning.
As they had promised since the conclusion of Parliament last year the National Party moved a motion of no confidence in the Speaker. Alarmingly, it only took one member of the Labour Party to object, for the matter to not even be debated. That objection by one MP told the entire country what most of us already knew. Jacinda’s kindness is fake. It is brought out when it suits her and only when the cameras are hovering.
As Barry Soper asks in his NZ Herald article:
“are they now telling us it’s okay to call a man a rapist, to ruin his life and leave him bereft and jobless? Well, that would seem to be the case. For Ardern to simply say Mallard made a mistake and he’s atoned with an apology for it is simply not good enough.”
Soper goes on to say:
“the whole case is about, in Mallard’s case, the power over the powerless. This has been the shabbiest episode of inequality that I’ve experienced since starting work at Parliament before Jacinda Ardern was born.”
Then there was Waitangi. Having received the Climate Commission’s report, Jacinda immediately latched on to it like the cat who had just been given the cream. No more gas barbecues and a reduction in the amount of meat appeared to be among the items on the menu. Except at Waitangi. There were Grant and Jacinda, like the Owl and the Pussycat, standing behind an array of gas-fired barbecues, cooking what looked like a vast amount of meat. If their faces were anything to go by they were thoroughly enjoying the occasion, seemingly oblivious to the hypocrisy they were serving up.
Next up: the hoo-ha over Air New Zealand’s ties with Saudi Arabia’s military. The PM and Green MP Golriz Ghahraman have got themselves into a hypocritical lather. Golriz, while having a warped moral compass when it comes to these matters, is at least consistent. In her view, we should not have any investment with any countries involved with breaches of human rights.
Jacinda thinks it doesn’t pass the sniff test and was asking the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to look into the matter. She thinks it could have ramifications for New Zealand and we need to be sure that we are applying UN sanctions, if they exist (they don’t).
In view of what is happening to the Uyghurs in China, someone should ask Jacinda why we are still trading with them. You can’t have a rule for one country with whom we trade and a different rule for another of our trading partners when both are allegedly committing human rights abuses.
During Question Time, David Seymour got in some good hits against Jacinda early on and Jacinda failed miserably when attempting to answer some very good questions from Brooke van Velden on what the government was doing in housing. There was also talk about RMA reform with Labour asking for cross-party support. Did they give it in Opposition when National wanted to reform it? No, they did not. Had they done so, the problems we are now facing would not be as large. I hope it does get cross-party support, but Labour once again seem oblivious to their hypocrisy.
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