Alwyn Poole: Dear “Chippy” - Why only 15% of voters want you as PM

(Not that the media even seem to but notice that aspect of the polls).

I have lived and worked in Auckland, primarily in Education, from 1998 until now (with a 6 year gap when I was in the BoI, which co-incided with your covid response).

I will try and keep this reponse to points.

• The combination of yourself and Jan Tinetti were the worst “Minister of Education” team I have ever observed.

• Your government made an understandable initial response to covid with closed borders. From that point on you lost the plot.

• You created situations where there was no nuance – the list is endless but – funerals missed, super-markets open but butchers and fruit shops closed, a lottery to come into the country but no circumstances being considered (e.g. being a pregnant reporter having to shelter in Afghanistan). Plus other false statements about people travelling within the nation.

• Arbitrary rules adopted that have since been significantly exposed, e.g. masks, 6m gaps, etc.

• Hiding information on the possible side effects of vaccines for young people – that are very likely to have resulted in injuries and deaths.

• Knowing, from March 2021, that the mRNA vaccines did not prevent transmission and yet imposing public sector mandates, in October of the same year, that destroyed many careers.

• Keeping Auckland (and, by association, Northland) locked down much longer than was needed/effective. Just as one example – this cost myself a tourism business and a $3.5million property in the Bay of Islands. That is a metonym for so many people in Auckland/Northland having lost life savings, restaurants, tourism businesses, employment … because you and your team had become enamoured with authoritarianism within your echo chamber.

• Auckland/Northland is still suffering. The coalition has not done enough to improve things but it has been a but like trying to pull the Titanic up with cotton after you had punched a hole in it.

• Not bothering to hear the concerns of protestors in Wellington and cheering on your Uncle Trevor while he hosed them and Michael Wood when he called them a “river of filth”.

• Being a part of a government when the PM clearly stated that she was creating “two classes of people”.

• Not having the personal/professional integrity to appear in person before the Covid-19 Royal Commission or to release the Pfitzer contracts (etc).

• Being a part of a government whose “economics” drove up debt, inflation, interest rates to such a destructive level that Eonomists are no longer talking about when there will be a recovery – but “if”.

“Chippy” – I have met with you a few times and they were positive encounters. Somewhere along the way you lost focus that your role was to improve things for NZers. I figure the only reason that you are still Labour leader is that no one else wants the role and only 15% of the nation want you as the PM.

What is your best move for the country in this moment?

Alwyn Poole, a well-known figure in the New Zealand education system, he founded and was the head of Mt Hobson Middle School in Auckland for 18 years. This article was published HERE