Nanaia Mahuta’s demotion and removal as Local Government Minister was clearly meant to send a message that things will be different under Prime Minister Hipkins.
But will they…?
Labour’s slide in the polls was closely linked to the declining popularity of Jacinda Ardern as the public grew tired of her soothing words and lack of delivery. The cost-of-living crisis has quite rightly been sheeted home to the government’s lack of fiscal discipline and the ballooning of the Wellington-based public service. The youth crime wave and the rise of gangs are all because of Labour’s policy of emptying the prisons, and a clear lack of consequences for offenders.
But one of the most unsettling for New Zealanders was the ramming through of the deeply unpopular Three Waters legislation – the Trojan horse that contains the co-governance models, where ratepayers are stripped of their local assets and iwi are given 50 per cent of the say.
The fact assets owned by local communities can be stolen and gifted to an entity where half of the directors are selected based on ethnicity is too much for most.
The underlying tenant of democracy is majority rule – the co-governance model the Labour government has introduced turns that on its head, with the power of veto going to the minority.
New Zealanders are fair-minded and have been prepared to let things run without speaking out, partly because there were wrongs that needed to be righted. And they are, via the treaty settlement process; and while this has slowed under Labour, it is those yet to be settled which are the more difficult.
However, our new prime minister has been an integral part of the process to date and more of the co-governance plan emerges all the time.
Controlling the narrative is essential to winning the debate, and our new prime minister knows this well.
The ‘hate speech’ bill is another important plank in controlling the narrative by shutting down speech that the government of the day doesn’t like.
While it has thankfully been softened, there is still the underlying intent to control the narrative and we must continue to vigorously oppose it.
The Labour government’s Public Interest Journalism Fund was brought in under the cloak of Covid support for the loss of advertising revenue. But RNZ does not have any advertising revenue to lose, so why then did it receive funding? What it shows is that the fund, rather than being about compensation, was more about control.
It begs the question if there should be public funding for media. And that is a question for the public to answer.
I very much doubt that much will change under Prime Minister Hipkins.