Pages

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Clive Bibby: Letter from the Provinces


Open letter to David Seymour, Christopher Luxon and all potential candidates from both the Act and National parties offering themselves to the electorate at the next general election. 

It is becoming common place for those of us here in the provinces who are suffering under the dictatorial whims of the current administration to hear that the cavalry is about to come over the hill and wipe away any trace of this disastrous spell on the treasury benches - almost as if we would be able to blot it out of memory like a bad dream.

Let’s examine whether this confidence in the alternative might be misplaced. 

It is true that we have benefitted from the sage assessment of the state of politics in this country from those who should know, people like Bob Jones and Richard Prebble - two of this country’s most successful and respected politicians. 

It is interesting to note that these guys are both prepared to put their reputations on the line suggesting that the next election will be a “rout” (landslide defeat) for the incumbents. 

Other reputable journalists and commentators (Karl Du Fresne, David Farrar et al) have backed up these predictions with detailed analysis of the reasons why it has all come to this - possibly predicting the most dramatic turnaround in voter preference in such a short time ever. 

The deceptions (some call them criminal intentions) knowingly withheld by Labour, the Greens and the Maori Party at the last election are exposed for all to see. 

These transformational plans in the form of the He Puapua report clearly show the government’s intention to hand over control of health and local authority services (3 waters oversight and the introduction of race based representation) to Maoridom  without consultation. 

So, one would imagine that the issues that will determine the outcome of the next general election are already set in stone and the result will be as Jones and Prebble suggest, a forgone conclusion. 

Much as l would hope they are right, l believe there are a number of commitments, still not made at this stage, that are required before we can be confident our votes will be cast in the areas where they can make a difference on polling day. 

You see, for my money, it will not be enough for the incoming government to have promised to consider overturning the draconian laws being introduced. 

As a bare minimum, in order to get my vote, Act, National and any support party must go to the electorate guaranteeing to change the law involving those undemocratic changes back to the position we had prior to the 2017 general election. 

That means the abandonment of any race based ratepayer funded institution such as a separate Maori Health Authority, the re-establishment of local authority representation based on regional voting preference, a return to the old laws that determined the makeup of the controlling management of natural resources, and the rewriting of the latest history curriculum based on facts based evidence - warts and all. 

Put simply, a cast iron commitment to restore the nation to the cornerstones supporting our earlier democracy will be the only justification for me voting to support a change of government - without it, there is no incentive to even bother making the effort to enter the polling booth. 

Believe me when l say to my traditional ideological bed mates, that you doubt my resolve at your peril. 

I am old enough to know what will influence the majority of us provincial voters to trust the promises made in the published manifestos. 

We might be simple folk, but we are not simpletons. You have to earn our confidence. 

Clear unambiguous commitments will be the only way you can do this. 

We await your response. 

Clive Bibby is a commentator, consultant, farmer and community leader, who lives in Tolaga Bay.

3 comments:

DeeM said...

Clive - I admire the sentiment of your article but I doubt the conditions you set down to capture your vote will be met.
This is where realism has to set in. We all have a wish list of the things we'd like but most of us are old enough to know that we never get it all.

Are there shortcomings in our centre-right coalition parties? Absolutely.
Will not voting for any party, because none meet all/some of your conditions help? No.

To me, the key question of the next election is the choice between the most ideologically extreme, untrustworthy and incompetent government I have known in my time in NZ, and something better.
We can all argue how much better but I'm sure we can find at least one policy or principal we think is an improvement.
Then, assuming we get an ACT-National govt in 2023 we all have to keep pushing for all the other things we want.

If Labour have done one good thing, it is I hope woken up a good proportion of the populace who now realise that they have to make their voice heard if they want their views to be represented. Leaving politicians to their own devices is a very dangerous thing!

Janine said...

Why can't we just vote for a party like Matt Kings that is already offering the changes we want? 400,000 people apparently swung from Labour to National at the last election. Thats a sizeable amount of floating voters.

As long as commentators like yourself rule out a change in direction for New Zealand it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

You keep only referring to Labour and National. Change has to start somewhere.

I visit alternative websites where Labour and National are not contenders.Traditional voters need to think outside the square.

Ray S said...

Janine, the problem with too many "other" parties out there who stand for election is they split the vote to the extent that we finish up going nowhere.
Sure, there will be some fine contenders with personalities to match and some with appealing promises, some with not.
These fringe parties will always appeal to certain voters who may see no future with the main players.
As stated in Clives blog, the centre right MUST state clearly where they stand with the issues we find abhorrent and what their plans are to put things right.
I've been around long enough to not take political promises at face value and save judgement until they put money where the mouth is.
Will the centre right carry the day next year, the way things are and the direction we are heading, its theirs to lose.

Post a Comment

Thanks for engaging in the debate!

Because this is a public forum, we will only publish comments that are respectful and do NOT contain links to other sites. We appreciate your cooperation.