I often describe New Zealanders to foreigners as “just like Australians, but nicer”. New Zealand’s media-political class have long told themselves the same thing. Look at Question Time in the Aussie parliament, they say. You’d never see that kind of behaviour in the Beehive.
But what may be true of ordinary Kiwis is not at all true of their politicians. As we’ve seen demonstrated all too well, NZ politicians are as toxic and nasty as anything Australian can throw up. Canberra has seen some dodgy Speakers like Peter Slipper, but no one that could hold a candle to a poisonous bully like Trevor Mallard.
But Mallard is just the tip of toxic iceberg in the Beehive.
Recent public revelations and accusations of bullying surrounding two junior parliamentarians have forced New Zealanders to reflect on the character and quality of their representatives – and highlighted profound deficiencies in the country’s candidate selection processes.
The behaviour of the two backbench MPs in question – Gaurav Sharma of the governing Labour Party and the opposition National Party’s Sam Uffindel – has caused deep discomfort for the country’s two main parties.
In both cases, it’s hard to untangle the opportunistic smearing from relevant facts. An inquiry failed to substantiate the allegations of Uffindel’s conduct at university, while his appalling behaviour as a teenage student was, he says, a regrettable part of his past. Uffindel claimed to have redeemed himself as an adult. Judging sincerity seems to be mostly a matter of partisanship. After all, the Ardern government seems to have no problems handing out taxpayer-funded sinecures – on drug and domestic violence policy, no less! – to gang leaders with lengthy criminal records.
Even in Australia, Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie is a darling of the green-left, despite his documented history of bullying (including forcing others to do Nazi salutes) as a cadet officer in the army.
But redemption is apparently only an option for “progressives”.
Meanwhile Labour has been similarly shaken after claims by junior MP Guarav Sharma who has been expelled from caucus after claiming his party has engaged in intimation, victimisation, misuse of public funds and deliberately circumventing the official information request process.
Whether or not one believes Sharma’s accusations, responding to allegations of bullying by, well, bullying the whistleblower, looks a hell of a lot like a party with a culture of bullying.
Both the Sharma and Uffindel cases have laid bare several uncomfortable issues. For one, they have raised serious questions about how candidates for political office are selected in New Zealand […]
Both parties have had its issues with poor MPs before. But the doubling down on these two cases has heightened concerns about the quality of New Zealand politicians. Integrity has taken a clear hammering.
The Australian
Couple that with the unconscionable bullying and hysterical smearing of the Freedom Village protesters, from all sides of politics, and is it any wonder that New Zealanders’ opinions of their political class is plumbing new depths, in one opinion poll after another?
New Zealanders might be nice (mostly), but their politicians are… well, there’s a common Australian word I could use for them, but I’m too polite. Ask Marama Davidson.