Not that far from Queenstown, I went to a Shane Jones public meeting in Cromwell on Tuesday night, and there were at least 400 people there, possibly upwards of 500, as the NZ First deputy leader, while not as energetic as in some of his parliamentary performances, was still on-form with his sharp wit, albeit preaching to the choir in the town set to benefit most from Santana digging a gold mine up the road at Bendigo.
The 1 News poll on Tuesday didn’t tell us anything new. It confirmed that National and Labour are almost certain to finish this election as sub-30% parties, that the Greens are looking more and more solid around the 15% mark, ACT and NZ First are 10 percenters, Opportunity is somewhere around 6% or 7%, and the Maori Party will have at least four electorate seats.
There was the slightest of hints that National might be starting to push the electorate vote hard in some marginal seats when Christopher Luxon suggested that voters should support Paul Goldsmith in Epsom, as David Seymour, the current MP and ACT leader, will be back in parliament anyway. Is Luxon beginning to wake up to the potential of many electorate victories as a way back to the Treasury benches? Actually, I doubt it. He just wants Goldsmith, a rather ineffective and dithering minister, back in his caucus. Luxon is backing the wrong horse here, because Seymour is pretty much entrenched as the local MP. National would be far better off pushing their candidate in the other ACT-held seat of neighbouring Tamaki, Mahesh Murali-dhar, a technology entrepreneur who should have a good chance of regaining one of National’s traditional strongholds from ACT’s new candidate, the lawyer and one-time Treaty Negotiations adviser James Christmas.
And while we’re in the Auckland electorates, National should be strongly backing their Auckland Central candidate Candace Kinser to get her over the line against Chloe Swarbrick. Some early polling indicated that was possible, although Swarbrick’s national profile does give her an advantage.
The Wednesday night leaders' debate was pretty dreary stuff, despite Ryan Bridge doing his best to keep the pace lively by never allowing rambling answers and covering a wide variety of subjects in the 90 minutes. Some of the answers were illuminating – I couldn’t believe that Chris Luxon’s political hero was Barack Obama, despite then saying he didn’t agree with his politics! What sort of bizarre rationale is that? Both of the Chrises would have Israel's President Benjamin Netanyahu arrested if he ever came to New Zealand. Really? An elected leader from the only democracy in the Middle East would be arrested because the International Criminal Court, itself an organisation of questionable integrity and an inability to enforce anything, says he should be? And this, after only seconds earlier both had agreed, in response to a question about US President Donald Trump being welcomed in New Zealand, that it is the Prime Minister’s job to get on with the leader of every country we do business with – and we do business with Israel to the extent of importing over $200 million worth of goods annually.
The debate showed that whichever of those men becomes Prime Minister in three weeks, the country will be led by a non-dynamic man of limited attraction to the masses, and a man who is unlikely to lead his party to support from more than 30% of the voting population.
Which makes the role of the Greens and Opportunity on the left and ACT and NZ First on the right the crucial blocks in this election.
Luxon was dead set firm in saying that he won’t be talking with Opportunity. It’s another huge gaffe on his part. He should be open to at least having a confidence and supply arrangement with them in order to run the government.
To be honest, Opportunity are emerging as political chameleons, prepared to change in order to get to parliament. Leader Qiulae Wong seems more interested in the style of politics rather than the substance. I think she’s in need of a good reality check.
The Greens have probably only reinforced their appeal with their constituency, while at the same time horrifying the rest of us with their visit to the Mongrel Mob this week, and then promising the Mob more money for drug rehabilitation. Oh well.
At least Chris Hipkins has a realistic approach to the Greens and promises he will keep them away from portfolios such as police and corrections. But then if it is a left-wing government, and the Greens have half as many MPs as Labour, they’ll want half as many cabinet jobs, and if Finance and Police and Justice and Corrections are not available, it makes you wonder what they would get?
Most certainly Conservation, which means that Santana Minerals would be packing up and leaving town, having spent millions setting up a gold mine that wouldn’t be happening. Yet if the support for the mine at Shane Jones meeting in Cromwell is anything to go by, there’ll be thousands of angry people in Otago denied the opportunity for an expansion of the region’s economic boom that high-paying gold mining jobs bring.
Jones told his audience also of NZ First’s plan to allocate 50% of mining royalties back to the region where they were taken from. That means a billion dollars for Central Otago over the next 15 years. It’s a great idea. The problem will be finding an appropriate trust structure to dole out the money independent of the local council.
Where I live, the incumbent National Party MPs shouldn’t have too many difficulties retaining their seats, but there’s more and more pressure going on Southland MP Joseph Mooney as the Fast Track process approves more and more housing in an already gridlocked Queenstown. Mooney has to support his government policy, but it’s obvious to anyone who visits Queenstown that the place has far too many houses as it is, and its infrastructure just cannot cope with the thousands more for which consents have been applied for without building the necessary road, wastewater and education facilities.
I want to finish this week on a rather depressing note. The Gisborne Herald asked 18-year-old first-time voters in that city who their favourite politician was. The most popular choice was the Greens Tamatha Paul. The reporter then asked how they received most of their political news and views. The majority said TikTok.
Dear God. The only slightly bright spot from all that is that about a third of all 18-to 24-year-olds are not enrolled to vote.
If that Gisborne survey is representative of the country’s youth, maybe it’s better they just don’t bother.
Peter Williams was a writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. This article was sourced HERE
The 1 News poll on Tuesday didn’t tell us anything new. It confirmed that National and Labour are almost certain to finish this election as sub-30% parties, that the Greens are looking more and more solid around the 15% mark, ACT and NZ First are 10 percenters, Opportunity is somewhere around 6% or 7%, and the Maori Party will have at least four electorate seats.
There was the slightest of hints that National might be starting to push the electorate vote hard in some marginal seats when Christopher Luxon suggested that voters should support Paul Goldsmith in Epsom, as David Seymour, the current MP and ACT leader, will be back in parliament anyway. Is Luxon beginning to wake up to the potential of many electorate victories as a way back to the Treasury benches? Actually, I doubt it. He just wants Goldsmith, a rather ineffective and dithering minister, back in his caucus. Luxon is backing the wrong horse here, because Seymour is pretty much entrenched as the local MP. National would be far better off pushing their candidate in the other ACT-held seat of neighbouring Tamaki, Mahesh Murali-dhar, a technology entrepreneur who should have a good chance of regaining one of National’s traditional strongholds from ACT’s new candidate, the lawyer and one-time Treaty Negotiations adviser James Christmas.
And while we’re in the Auckland electorates, National should be strongly backing their Auckland Central candidate Candace Kinser to get her over the line against Chloe Swarbrick. Some early polling indicated that was possible, although Swarbrick’s national profile does give her an advantage.
The Wednesday night leaders' debate was pretty dreary stuff, despite Ryan Bridge doing his best to keep the pace lively by never allowing rambling answers and covering a wide variety of subjects in the 90 minutes. Some of the answers were illuminating – I couldn’t believe that Chris Luxon’s political hero was Barack Obama, despite then saying he didn’t agree with his politics! What sort of bizarre rationale is that? Both of the Chrises would have Israel's President Benjamin Netanyahu arrested if he ever came to New Zealand. Really? An elected leader from the only democracy in the Middle East would be arrested because the International Criminal Court, itself an organisation of questionable integrity and an inability to enforce anything, says he should be? And this, after only seconds earlier both had agreed, in response to a question about US President Donald Trump being welcomed in New Zealand, that it is the Prime Minister’s job to get on with the leader of every country we do business with – and we do business with Israel to the extent of importing over $200 million worth of goods annually.
The debate showed that whichever of those men becomes Prime Minister in three weeks, the country will be led by a non-dynamic man of limited attraction to the masses, and a man who is unlikely to lead his party to support from more than 30% of the voting population.
Which makes the role of the Greens and Opportunity on the left and ACT and NZ First on the right the crucial blocks in this election.
Luxon was dead set firm in saying that he won’t be talking with Opportunity. It’s another huge gaffe on his part. He should be open to at least having a confidence and supply arrangement with them in order to run the government.
To be honest, Opportunity are emerging as political chameleons, prepared to change in order to get to parliament. Leader Qiulae Wong seems more interested in the style of politics rather than the substance. I think she’s in need of a good reality check.
The Greens have probably only reinforced their appeal with their constituency, while at the same time horrifying the rest of us with their visit to the Mongrel Mob this week, and then promising the Mob more money for drug rehabilitation. Oh well.
At least Chris Hipkins has a realistic approach to the Greens and promises he will keep them away from portfolios such as police and corrections. But then if it is a left-wing government, and the Greens have half as many MPs as Labour, they’ll want half as many cabinet jobs, and if Finance and Police and Justice and Corrections are not available, it makes you wonder what they would get?
Most certainly Conservation, which means that Santana Minerals would be packing up and leaving town, having spent millions setting up a gold mine that wouldn’t be happening. Yet if the support for the mine at Shane Jones meeting in Cromwell is anything to go by, there’ll be thousands of angry people in Otago denied the opportunity for an expansion of the region’s economic boom that high-paying gold mining jobs bring.
Jones told his audience also of NZ First’s plan to allocate 50% of mining royalties back to the region where they were taken from. That means a billion dollars for Central Otago over the next 15 years. It’s a great idea. The problem will be finding an appropriate trust structure to dole out the money independent of the local council.
Where I live, the incumbent National Party MPs shouldn’t have too many difficulties retaining their seats, but there’s more and more pressure going on Southland MP Joseph Mooney as the Fast Track process approves more and more housing in an already gridlocked Queenstown. Mooney has to support his government policy, but it’s obvious to anyone who visits Queenstown that the place has far too many houses as it is, and its infrastructure just cannot cope with the thousands more for which consents have been applied for without building the necessary road, wastewater and education facilities.
I want to finish this week on a rather depressing note. The Gisborne Herald asked 18-year-old first-time voters in that city who their favourite politician was. The most popular choice was the Greens Tamatha Paul. The reporter then asked how they received most of their political news and views. The majority said TikTok.
Dear God. The only slightly bright spot from all that is that about a third of all 18-to 24-year-olds are not enrolled to vote.
If that Gisborne survey is representative of the country’s youth, maybe it’s better they just don’t bother.
Peter Williams was a writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. This article was sourced HERE
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for joining the discussion. Breaking Views welcomes respectful contributions that enrich the debate. Please ensure your comments are not defamatory, derogatory or disruptive. We appreciate your cooperation.