Pages

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

Mike Hosking: The weather is a scapegoat for our ineptitude


In a display of brass neck that even for Labour was quite something, Carmel Sepuloni tried to explain in an interview on TV that the current cost of living crisis wasn’t necessarily the Government's fault.

As regards an explanation as to who's fault it might be, she seemed to settle on the weather. There is a theme here as the weather has taken a lot of heat this year.

What a spectacularly convenient scapegoat it is because, in part, it's true, but only in part. The weather is no ones fault so it’s the perfect alibi.

The weather excuse has been rolled out previously. Chris Hipkins and Grant Robertson trumpet that we wouldn't have had a recession if it hadn't been for the weather.

Carmel, having seen that, clearly thought she could stretch matters just that little bit further and suggest the entire cost-of-living crisis could be written off in the same fashion.

Sadly, no.

Her economic credentials are not good to start with. You might remember a few months back when she was standing in as Prime Minister she got given a series of questions in the house at Question Time around the economy and the trade deficit. It became awfully clear, awfully quickly she was a mile out of her depth. In fact the Finance Minister Robertson was heard at the time to be whispering the answers.

The trick here, and I think we will see more and more of it, is there are a group of voters who either don’t care or aren't clued in enough to know that what is said is often not actually right.

There are a group of voters who will hear Sepuloni say its not the Government's fault and will simply accept it. Sort of like the Police Minister saying we feel safer or the Prime Minister in the house last week saying we have record low unemployment. We don’t, but if he says it with gusto and no one picks him up, why can't it be true?

For the record, the cost-of-living is entirely the Government's fault. The Reserve Bank, with Government backing, printed money to such an extent we would always end up with record inflation.

The Government kept the borders closed so labour was critically short and we all got huge pay rises to cover the rising prices, hence the inflationary shambles we currently find ourselves in.

The question is - does Carmel not get that? Or does Carmel fully get it but runs her line of BS anyway.

Either way, the buck stops on the doorstep of her and her fellow economic saboteurs.

Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.

2 comments:

Kiwialan said...

Mike, she is just another dickhead ( dickheadess ? ) with illusions of grandeur totally out of her depth, normal for this government. If she wasn't a wannabe politician she could nearly be an academic. Kiwialan.

Anonymous said...

Excellent Kiwialan.