Clive Bibby: In the Nick of Time

Comments by the founder of the Opportunity Party, Gareth Morgan, about TOP, couldn’t have come at a better time for voters trying to decide which coalition would be most worthy of their vote.

For me the key parts of his message were in two sentences - one a warning and the other a statement of fact.

The warning was his observation that the Party had drifted away from its founding principles and was now more likely to support a “Centre Left” coalition with all the baggage that entails.

The statement of fact was that The Opportunity Party founding principles were designed to appeal to “Centre Right” tradies (working class Kiwis), on whom the Nation’s wealth is built.

I believe Morgan’s timely observation could be the key to saving us from a disastrous mistake based on false propaganda.

It has become clear over recent months that there is a sizeable constituency out there (maybe as much as 6% of those who intend to vote) who have either become disillusioned with their traditional party of choice or have decided some other idealogical theory needs to be added to the mix of government in order that we all benefit more than we have been

Unfortunately, but thankfully, the promise that the conveyor of that new hope had arrived in the form of the Opportunity Party has been well and truly shattered with Gareth Morgan’s revelation..

And my hope is that voters who were thinking of supporting a party who were not being straight with them will also be asking is it a good reason to be reassessing whether their intended choice was misplaced.

Questions should be being asked whether this relatively “new kid on the block”:could be trusted as a partner in Government as well.

Love him or hate him - Christopher Luxon has up until now, steadfastly refused to engage with the Opportunity Party as a potential Centre Right Coalition Partner.

His reasons for doing so have been vindicated by Gareth Morgan’s observation.

Let’s hope we have received this information in time to make informed choices about the best group of politicians to lead us through the next 3 uncertain years.

l’m not sure who wrote this (or words to the effect) but the comment :“Democracy is an imperfect form of Government but all the rest are so much worse!” surely resonates at times like this.

And we are so fortunate that, inspite of the obvious flaws associated with our own chosen system, it has served us reasonably well in the past

It’s just that we need to be vigilant in ensuring enough safeguards are in place in order that it functions in a manner that has the capacity to protect us from ourselves.

Clive Bibby is a commentator, consultant, farmer and community leader, who now lives in Taranaki.