Cam Slater: Can Ginny Andersen Get ‘Back on Track’?

Did you hear Ginny Andersen get eviscerated by Mike Hosking on Wednesday morning? It was a train wreck. It also preceded National’s launching their slogan “Let’s Get New Zealand Back on Track”. Maybe Christopher Luxon was referring to Ginny Andersen and her train wreck interview. If you haven’t heard it, listen now.

Click to listen

Mike Hosking was so disgusted, he wrote about this as well. After outlining a long list of violent crimes in the past week he hit Andersen with this:

Against this back-drop we have the recently released stats around arrests, especially for young people.

Of those arrested, more than half never got to court. Of those who did, barely a third got a sentence … and you wonder why they go back for more.

We all know the story about the Government’s approach to prison – that’s why the numbers are down 20 per cent; they’ve been let out, they’ve got ankle bracelets, and the absconding on bracelets is up 90 per cent.

Fortunately, we have the relatively new Police Minister who sees what none of us do: a) that crime isn’t up apparently, it’s just being reported more she says; and b) we feel safer because there are (almost) 1800 more cops on the beat.

This government has said a lot of elaborate and straight up and down nonsense in the past six years, but Ginny Andersen and her brass neck on crime has got to be in serious contention for the most spectacular bout of gaslighting yet. And in her outlandish and outrageous untruths around crime is the cold hard reality of a two-term government.

NZ Herald

Mike Hosking has the right of it. Ginny Andersen is gaslighting us all. It’s a skill that this Government has developed and is particularly adept at.

This Labour Government also seems to have a particularly splendid crop of useless ministers. I’ve been convinced for some time that Ayesha Verall will end up quite easily as the worst performer in the Labour cabinet, beating out Nanaia Mahuta, who seems to have disappeared. But Ginny Andersen – well, she’s a dark horse, making a strong push.

The trouble with the facts is they catch up with you. In the early days you can say things like you will build 100,000 houses in 10 years, and you will put more police on the streets, and you will grow the economy, and put in light rail and build cycle bridges. That’s why term 1 is always the easiest, you get to blame the last lot and also explain away any non-delivery by suggesting the best is yet to come, and it’s still early days.

Six years in, the numbers don’t lie and this government is caught up in one gargantuan lie. I know no one who feels safer. I know no one who thinks the police are adequately resourced and attend to crime in the way we would expect.

In our wider family alone in the last year, we have dealt with several break-ins, several threats (death and otherwise) via social media, an assault in the city centre and a home invasion. Not one of these has been attended to in anywhere close to what you would once have expected … not from the police, and because the police didn’t always do what they once might have, not by the judicial process either.

From our experience, to get: a) the police at your place at pace; b) an interest that will lead to an investigation; c) an arrest; d) charges that lead somewhere; and e) an actual sentence which might involve an element of deterrence, you’d be better off at the TAB putting $50 grand on Moana Pacifica to win the Super Rugby.

The simple truth is people are scared and, if they’re not scared, they are furious. This is not the New Zealand we know, or the New Zealand we like and want for our kids. Crime is rampant, the thugs are violent, the gangs are growing, the police are over-worked, the judicial system is either asleep or under instruction, and the minister is a disgrace to the office.

I blame Jacinda Ardern and I’ll tell you why … she appointed Andrew Coster and Poto Williams, and it’s been downhill ever since. Being soft on crime gets you the mess we have, and no fewer than five police ministers in six years, whose sole line of defence is just world-class BS and spin.

NZ Herald

Let’s look at the list of those Police Ministers, shall we:

• Stuart Nash (twice)
• Poto Williams
• Chris Hipkins (Yes, that Chris Hipkins)
• Megan Woods
• Ginny Andersen

If you thought Poto Williams was useless, then Ginny Andersen makes her look spectacular. You have to go way back to Clem Simich back in 1999 to find a more useless minister.

The real problem is that Labour’s talent pool is as shallow as a bird bath in a hot summer. They have dolts, fools and ignoramuses to choose from and they prove daily just how inept they and this Government have become.

Time’s up: their goose is cooked. Now if only the opposition could make hay while this sun is shining. Chance’d be a fine thing.

Cam Slater is a New Zealand-based blogger, best known for his role in Dirty Politics and publishing the Whale Oil Beef Hooked blog, which operated from 2005 until it closed in 2019. This article was first published HERE