The PM’s post-cabinet chat yesterday was stomach churning in so many ways.
The lies, the disingenuousness of it all, the theatrics and the pretence that they’ve actually been active as a government on crime. Embarrassing. No one’s buying it.
This new fog canon measure is too late – they know it, we know it.
Worse yet, the PM tried to deflect all blame from her Government by saying that there’d be a delay on said fog cannons – due to a global shortage. This turns out to be an outright lie.
Newstalk ZB Drive host Heather du Plessis Allan smelt a rat straight away and last night called a fog cannon supplier to fact check the PM on this one. No surprises in his response.. he said to her, ‘I see the Queen of Spin is at it again..’
He said the facts are, there is no global shortage of fog cannons, the supply issue is due to the Government not placing any orders for them. They’ve dropped the ball, again.
He said they’ve been waiting months for the government to place fog canon orders and they’ve just been sitting on their hands. He said it takes about 3 months to make a fog canon, then you’ve got to ship them to New Zealand, and given the Government’s placed no orders, that’s the delay.
So the delay is the Government’s fault, it’s on them. Remind anyone of the vaccine rollout?
This is a government of inaction and indecision. Unless it’s Three Waters legislation of course, that appears to be able to be rammed through no holds barred. But this fog canon supply shortage claim – or should I say lie, is akin to the same lie the PM trotted out yesterday, that the Government’s new increased support for dairy business owners is not based on the death of Janak Patel.
Of course it is. We know it is, you know it is, why pretend it isn’t?
The Government wants to pretend it’s considerate, organized and proactive enough not to wait for a death, in order to act, but that’s simply not true. Spinning us lies is just not working anymore; this Government has a credibility problem.
The PM has a credibility problem. Included in her post Cab was the other audacious claim that they’ve been tough on crime.
She “rejected” criticism her Government was soft on crime. She “rejected” that the Government had acted too slowly, she “rejected” the idea that it took Patel’s death for the Government to act.
Hipkins, the Police Minister, singing from the same song sheet, rejected the fact that we’re currently in a crime ‘crisis’. Same way Health Minister Andrew Little rejects we’re in a health ‘crisis’.
I can tell you this for nothing, rejecting this stuff doesn’t make it go away. It is a crisis for every single victim and every family member of victims in these burglaries and raids.
But the other real crisis we're in at the moment is a spin crisis. There’s too much of it coming from the Pulpit of Truth.
We're drowning in it; we're exhausted from being fed it. I do worry about all those who just accept it without question though, or have checked out because they don’t even care anymore.
We should care; we are being fed a steady diet of BS, from a government that has no idea what the words accountability or responsibility mean.
Kate Hawkesby is a political broadcaster on Newstalk ZB - her articles can be seen HERE.
5 comments:
It would appear that our government now believes that fog cannons will stop criminals from stealing products and attacking store workers.
I've watched the U-tube video. Sure, the fog will make it harder but it doesn't create a physical barrier between the products/worker and the criminal wielding a gun/knife.
Dairies are usually pretty small and especially the check-out area. If the crim recce's the dairy first to locate where the items he wants are he still stands a good chance.
And, I sure as hell wouldn't want to be a dairy worker hiding behind the counter hoping that the attacker doesn't jump over and start blasting or slashing away in the fog.
Fog cannons won't stop robberies. They may push the robber onto a shop with no fog cannons but that hasn't solved the problem. And if they become common enough, crims will likely become more threatening and violent.
enjoy your comments kate keep up the great work
I live in a private apartment block in Wellington, 11 stories, 46 flats. Twice we've been ram raided in the last three months. The basement has been broken into and the cages, where we store surplus stuff have been trashed, with personal possessions scattered all over the floor.What to do? Probably we'll have to get security cameras, which again will all be added to our body corps fee.
The hooligans were at it again two nights ago, this time an attempted break in, the outer handle of one of the doors ripped off and a huge glass pane on the other door badly fractured. EVery one is worried. Dairy owners are certainly the chief victims of this crime wave, but people living in their own homes are just as vulnerable. The feeling of insecurity is paramount among my neighbours and the worry that measures to prevent it may be unaffordable for many of them. Just wait and see what our insurers will charge us next year.
I'm pleased I missed it, but clearly Toothietala is at it again.
Now, if Maori were more often dairy and bottle store owners, I wonder how fast the response would have been, and of course the blame directed at colonisation or some other nonsense?
Keep it up, Kate.
Those owners are workers.
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