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Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Point of Order: A lurch to the right?



Not that the PM can see (or rather, not that she is willing to acknowledge)

The thud reverberating around the country on Saturday – according to a raft of political commentators – was the sound of a party vote collapsing. The Labour Party vote.

But that ominous interpretation didn’t reach the ears of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who insisted in an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report that the results from local body elections are not “necessarily indicative of a shift in feeling on national politics”.

Really?

As RNZ pointed out, Labour gave endorsements to Wellington candidate Paul Eagle and Auckland mayoral hopeful Efeso Collins. Both men resoundingly lost.

Ardern nevertheless dismissed the notion that this rejection of candidates who had been given Labour’s stamp of approval could reflect dissatisfaction with her party.

Either the batteries that power her political antennae need recharging or she is saying something she does not believe.

Yet if Labour’s opponents took comfort from the local body election results, they too have some lessons from it to ponder. And once the initial excitement of donning the mayoral robes subsides the victors have hard decisions to shape.

Some of those victors rode in on the tide of opposition to the Government’s uncompromising commitment to Three Waters reform. But what do they propose in its place?

The Opposition parties in Parliament won’t have a bar of it, either, but neither National nor ACT has offered financially viable solutions.

Ardern sounded a caution that might hit the victors where it hurts:

“… whilst there are many who have expressed a view on Three Waters, you haven’t had anyone arguing the counter factual – and that is, if we stick with the status quo that they would (have to) support rate rises, which is the inevitable outcome.

“That is the reason we are pursuing this – the alternative to Three Waters is rate rises in the thousands because of the additional water infrastructure that is required, no one’s out campaigning on that.”

The problem for Labour is that it has become unpopular for reasons much wider than Three Waters (although its policy on that is critically flawed).

Virtually every election policy Labour took to voters in 2017, from resolving the housing crisis to eliminating child poverty, has not been accomplished. Now everybody is becoming poorer as inflation hits households and the economy moves towards recession.

Compounding these failures, health and education services – on which the Labour Party prides itself – are under severe strain.

In desperation Finance Minister Grant Robertson is rubbishing National’s policy of cutting taxes. He talks of National’s Bermuda triangle — it can’t cut taxes without raising debt or cutting spending. Yet it seems Labour’s only chance of survival is to pre-empt the Nats and cut taxes itself in the run -up to next year’s election..

But the Nats can’t afford to be unduly cockahoop. The risk for them is that the newly elected local bodies find the going too formidable to achie much in recessionary conditions and voters who pinned hopes on a turnaround become politically disillusioned.

Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton

5 comments:

K said...

It is the 'co-governance' element of 3 waters that irritates NZer's.

Steve Ellis said...

The problem for Ardern and Three Waters is that she has deliberately avoided any direct discussion with the electorate on the co-governance construct her legislation is attempting to embed in these reforms. She will always pivot to the "well what is the solution to the burst pipes " rhetoric.
Beneath the grin, she clearly understands how divisive and deceitful co-governance is in relation to such change. Her stance is disingenuous and a betrayal of respect to all New Zealanders.
Steve Ellis

Anonymous said...

Ardern is so full of BS, she alone believes her spin. 3 Waters is a Rort on the people of NZ. Give control of critical infrastructure, paid for by all taxpayers, to a small race based group of people. What part of that doesn’t stink?
The problem we are to fix is old water pipes. So spend some money and replace the broken pipes. We don’t need to rip up the entire network and hand it over to the Māori water department

Mudbayripper said...

The co governance component of three waters has become a major issue for most New Zealanders. Finally pushback is underway.
The real insidious concept of co-governance is well down the road, but not well known about. Its everywhere, right throughout our entire system including publicly ownd lands and property. Check out the newly released 2022 Auckland regional parks 10 year plan, looks like co-governance to me.

Anonymous said...

i think we should be happy that pm does not see this as indicative of a shift. this means no course correction to bribe the voters is likely to happen, and the 'great reset' in 2023 can be assured...

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