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Thursday, August 29, 2024

Mike's Minute: Surely the clock is ticking for Chris Hipkins


You can see how the rumblings around the future of Chris Hipkins as Labour Leader have started.

They have added to their problems this week with the social media post from David Parker wittering on about his tax dream. The old Capital Gains Tax, get all those rich bastards lined up and raid their pockets.

It's a sorry old state they find themselves in.

The power crisis is a nadir of sorts. The cold hard reality of their policies has come home to roost for us and haunt them.

You can argue the same around the economy, in general of course, and their Covid approach. Three recessions in two years. A record unmatched by anyone I can find is pretty damning for a government that spent six years basically wrecking the place.

But the power is indisputable. We have no gas because we haven't looked for any because they closed it down.

The lack of rain or wind isn't their fault, but the fragility of the system is. All the stuff they said would happen to close the gap hasn’t. The Onslow idea went nowhere. And the simple, irrefutable truth is as a result of a lack of supply is the price is up, some people can't pay it, and people are out of work.

It's a series of very clear simple dots that can be laid directly at their doorstep.

It goes to credibility, they have none. And now we have tax.

If Labour go to the next election with a package of new taxes, like capital gains, they may as well not campaign.

They will have a two-fold problem. One, the recent memory of their performance in government is still fresh in voters' minds. Two, a new idea being we will tax you some more for good measure.

They will, of course, be facing a government that has cut taxes and may well, if they are lucky, have an economy with some real steam driving it.

If Hipkins makes it that far, his vision will seem so weird, so out of touch, and so ideologically mad he will not only lose, but quite possibly badly.

You can't hide your past; you can hope people forget, and time helps that.

But if more tax is their calling card for 2026, it's game over before it's even started.

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.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Labour actually scare me with their idiocy. We no longer have a legit mature adult opposition in the House. We have nowhere to go should the current lot fail. I'm just constantly confused by that side of the house. Labour has turned into the Greens...the Greens have morphed into a weird side arm of TPM...and I cant figure out why TPM turns up at all considering they "didn't cede sovereignty". Its like watching someone with several layers of schizophrenia put their hand up to run the country. None of it makes any sense and detracts from what they should all actually be doing.

Anonymous said...

It’s pretty obvious he doesn’t want to be PM again.
Saying Māori didn’t cede sovereignty, cancel any oil, gas exploration, cancel any fast track projects, wants to implement a wealth tax.
Unelectable with that baggage round your neck.
The Country would be royally screwed if they get back in

Anonymous said...

Anon @ 12:06pm - superbly said.

The real issue is why over 40pct of people continue to support the sheer lunacy of Labour et al.

I think it is because less people are actually engaged in politics and further, intelligence is digressing. You only have to look at the lack of basic driver competence on the roads to see this.

Perhaps we should have a basic comprehension test before allowing someone to vote as it is hardly indicative of a healthy democracy if people voting don’t have the intelligence to understand what it is they are voting for.

Anonymous said...

“Democracy is indispensable to socialism” said Karl Marx and “The end goal of socialism is communism” said V.I. Lenin.
No doubt these authors are on the preferred reading list of all western politicians today.

TJS said...

I guess they're content to be making there ridiculous comments from the sidelines for some time. I mean why bother it's all just too hard to actually do something. Nice to be at the table though. Oh trough

MC said...

To coin a phrase "In the valley of the blind, the one - eyed man is King".

Anonymous said...

To say 'Maori didn't cede sovereignty' is surely his political death knell? What did he hope to achieve by such a patently stupid statement? Add more fuel to the fire of the colonised victimhood mentality; appease with co-governance, ushering in He Puapua, furher compensation and a ruling ethnocracy? Who knows? But his ignorance knows no bounds - although we all knew that when he didn't know what a woman was.

Doug Longmire said...

Well said, Anon.