Overview:
To engage does not mean you are weak; it does not mean that you must accede to their requests, it simply means you are doing your job.
As I write this piece (21/02/2022) Christopher Luxon is about to give a presentation on Facebook concerning the Wellington Protests – and that is a problem.
Those familiar with my column will see that I predicted the Wellington Protests a year ago and suggested that the politicians needed to deal with the potential protests long before they became a reality. My suggestion was simple – engage, discuss, and resolve. None of these things happened and, accordingly, the protest has gone ahead and continues.
And yet, and yet – our politicians still do not engage. They seem to think they are on a “team.” Newsflash for the Opposition – you are not on a team, you are the Opposition. It is up to you to keep the current government honest, and where they are not, to make that deviation public and known.
Showing solidarity with Labour when they are doing so many wrong-headed things will buy the Opposition parties no goodwill with either Labour, now or in the future, nor with the New Zealand voter, and particularly not with their own followers.
Here is a task they could undertake. They should have done it on Day One and it could have avoided much ado.
At the time, if all the politicians, in unison, had walked down the steps of parliament and mingled with the crowd and discussed with receptive protesters why they were here and what they expected, then the protesters would have felt their voice had been heard and many would have gone home feeling that way.
This is a stratagem very different from speeches given on high and certainly very different from ignoring them, and a far cry from the actions of Trevor ‘Ministry of Truth’ Mallard for whose actions the Opposition parties are now tarred! Guilt by both association and inaction.
Instead of engaging the opposition did nothing. They deserve to be handed white feathers for their cowardice. The photo of Luxon peering out a Beehive window at the protesters was pathetic.
The Opposition would have met with the public at any other time so why are they so timorous now? And why for the benefit of a Labour Government that will not address its own actions to the people?
There are 200 policemen if trouble arises so why won’t the opposition do their job?
Only belatedly did David Seymour emerge and speak with members of the crowd. Was he heckled? Sure he was. That is not unexpected after the “Mallard persecutions” and the no-show of his colleagues. If they had any sense, then all of the ACT Party would have come down to the crowd for consultation.
Was David assaulted? Was he manhandled or spat on? No – he survived perfectly well and was all the better for having done his duty.
Did any other politicians follow, especially after seeing that there really was no danger? No.
It is not too late for Opposition politicians (National and ACT) to present a unified front and to engage with the crowd. They could put Labour ‘on the spot’. They could represent the Democratic process. They could mingle amongst them, hear their voices, empathise, and then politely say, “You have been heard, now please go home.”
Maybe they don’t want to grant the Protesters “legitimacy” but like it or not they are voters and as such their concerns are legitimate. More importantly, they are citizens of New Zealand, and they are human beings with a right to be heard (now, where is that supportive comment from the Human Rights Commission on the right to peacefully protest? Oh, that’s right… ‘nowhere’).
Instead, we have a cowardly Facebook address from National, a retreat by ACT and a ‘no way’ from ‘Auntie’ Jacinda (she’s busy writing her Harvard Speech on White Supremacy). No doubt it includes “Supply and Demand Theory” where the Demand for White Supremacists seems to greatly outstrip Supply… the GCSB needs to look harder). The Luxon Facebook address will achieve exactly nothing except to confirm how he can pontificate, safely away from voters.
To engage does not mean you are weak; it does not mean that you must accede to their requests, it simply means you are doing your job.
It will put you streets ahead in the New Zealand people’s estimation of your parties’ and bolster the democratic system during these times of a single party “absolutism”.
Of course, the MSM media will see your united Opposition front, and they will make much ado about it and put a negative spin around the outing. Good! That is exactly what you want! Let the MSM show their colours because everyone knows how biased they are, and this provides ample ground to restate what Mussolini said about Fascism – about how it can come into existence when the State and the media collude together (propaganda) to control the will and soul of the people.
Do it while the spectre of Justin Trudeau and what has happened in Canada is still sharp in people’s minds. Like Jacinda he refused to face the protesters and instead “spoke on high” (Jacinda telling protesters to go home “and take your children” – showing her full contempt for them) – and how did that turn out? Tar her with the guilt by association to Trudeau – as they are ‘peas in a pod’ – don’t be paired with her.
I call on the Opposition to show courage and go down and speak amongst the protesters and to not indulge in weak-kneed ‘Facebook-for-Boomers’ time – with people who are already disengaged; you’re not convincing anyone.