Jacinda Ardern is in deep political doo-doo. Her poll numbers are tanking. She’s still got a good 18 months before another election, of course — but then, so did Kevin Rudd. Ardern must surely be turning in circles right now, trying to spot where the knife will come from.
Whatever happens to Ardern, though, Kiwis will be living with the consequences of her devastating record of incompetence, on the one hand, and her deep subversion of New Zealand’s social and political bedrock on the other, for decades. Her destructive leveraging of identity politics into nearly every aspect of New Zealand life, from healthcare to the very structure of government, will take years to undo.
Assuming that a new government even has the will to do so.
There is little sign that a National government, under Christopher Luxon, is intellectually equipped to tackle Ardern’s destructive elevation of tribalism and identity politics.
Posing as “just like Jacinda, but less so” may seem like a clever political move to National strategists, but is it really just a pose, for Luxon?
The inability of Ardern’s government to keep election promises such as tackling mental health and suicide rates; stopping selling off state housing; investing in much-needed infrastructure; eliminating child poverty – the reason our Prime Minister said she got into politics – represents a spectacular failure to deliver – as with home ownership, a lost dream for so many. However, the apparent reluctance of MPs to see a fall in the sky-high price of housing may be related to the fact that many themselves own multiple properties. National leader Christopher Luxon alone, lamenting the lack of affordable housing, owns seven properties.
Luxon clearly shares Ardern’s authoritarian mindset.
He has already stated how he expects National MPs to present themselves. Formerly CEO of Air New Zealand, his presiding over this corporation (criticised for its high pricing and lack of concessions for families travelling) may account for his propensity to dominate. Not allowing MPs to exercise a conscience vote on the infamous Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Bill, resulted in some unhappy at having to toe the party line supporting the attack on the truth of issues, the reality of being born male or female now able to be denied by delusionary or activist individuals.
As with the Morrison government in Australia, rather than presenting voters with a clear alternative to the left’s future-wrecking obsession with “Net Zero”, Luxon’s Nationals are singing from exactly the same hymn sheet, only at a slightly less-deafening forte to the Labour-Green’s stentorian fortissimo.
Luxon has apparently bought into the global warming scam, given his statement that ‘weaning the economy off fossil fuels is necessary to reduce emissions, while aiming for a proper transition’. Ignorant politicians are no asset, and while National is viewed as more fiscally competent, it is defined by its consistent failure to more widely appreciate other than economic realities.
Again, this is the same mistake the Morrison government continually makes: thinking that getting the economic numbers right (or at least marginally better) is the antidote to utter spinelessness on Culture War issues. It’s not just the economy, stupids.
For all his talk about a divided society, Luxon shows no understanding of Ardern’s determined promotion of racist separatism, essentially aiming for tribal control of New Zealand. To this end, the new, New Zealand (whoops, Aotearoa) history curriculum centre-stages – within Marxist concepts of power struggle – a grandiose, highly politicised, whitewashed history of a noble Maori people – containing factually wrong claims. Little wonder Ardern describes its launch as one of her proudest moments.
Spectator Australia
Even if Ardern goes, as things stand, New Zealand will continue to lose.