Wendy Geus: Luxon refuses help to save the Coalition, prefers political oblivion

…. and left wing media panic as it becomes clear their guys might lose

'We need to inject more ACTness into the Coalition' reads a comment on David Farrar's Kiwiblog. Yes, I thought, this is truly a watershed moment, when voters can give ACT (and NZ First) the power to stop the hushed up marxist tyranny in the public service, operating under the guise of eliminating racism and threats to diversity. Ardern would be proud.

And, at the same time, they would be rescuing National and keeping the Coalition together.

How cool!

Whilst desperate Thomas Coughlan and Henry Cook seeing their hopes of a Labour victory slipping away suggest, in the interests of fairness, Luxon and Hipkins make a grand coalition.

With the possible exception of traitors Key and Luxon, we the people would strongly object to that, you pillocks.

Fiscally conservative ACT who have consistently advocated, indefatigably, for 'one law for all' along with their determination to cut costs could achieve much with more seats. I worry

NZ First's fiscally liberal approach with grand ideas and no fiscal plan isn't the answer at the moment. That decision is up to the voters.

The important thing is to save the Coalition.

National voters donating their party vote to Act or NZ First will be doing a favour to National, a party on life support, with a leader in denial as he clings on to power, ignoring all the evidence including (likely) two coups against him.

Chris Bishop in danger of losing his Hutt South seat, by parroting 'party vote National' is guaranteeing National a pathway to political oblivion. If the electorate vote in the Labour candidate he will be out of Parliament and that will be a great loss; along with senior list MPs, the spendthrift Finance Minister, disappointing Speaker and prevaricator Goldsmith... not so much of a loss in my opinion.

Not to fear I have already, in my head, lined up some much more worthy possible finance candidates including Sam Uffindell, David Seymour and Craig Stobo.

For the first time is 30 years (10 elections) giving your party vote to National will be like leaving a drowning man to drown, as it will increase the Coalition's chances of losing. As math's maestro Sean Williamson emphasises, (in the interview in the link below) National asking for party votes for the last 10 elections was fine as their party vote always exceeded their electorate vote.

And as we know seats in the House are decided by party votes not electorate.

Even their most forgettable election result in 2002 when they only won 21 electorate seats, National managed to fluke 6 list MPs as their party vote was 21.08%!

But not this time. And made even worse with Luxon in denial thinking the good fairy is coming to rescue him: and maths savvy Key prepared to let past grievances get in the way of advocating for a split vote approach for National which he has admitted would be a guaranteed path to victory for the right bloc.

Isn't this that thing called treason?

Also this is Luxon's last hurrah and his true colours are showing. He wants a referendum for First Past the Post so no-one can get in the way of his misguided 'partnership' journey with Maori, courtesy of the tax payer which so far has proved quite expensive.

An even worse outcome for them is giving Seymour and Peters more power to reverse social justice lunacy which would include forcing public servants to stick to delivering public service and stop tyrannising staff who do not comply with their activist demands, with various penalties Kim Jong Un would be proud of, including:

- Suspending and forcing a teacher to do costly and time wasting 'educational' penance for posting comments contradicting DEI ideology.

-suspending and ruining a real estate agent's career as she refused to do a Treaty course.

-forcing medical professionals to recognise Maori as tangata whenua as part of their signed employment contract.

-Intensive inculcation of the 'Maori world view' in the defence force at the expense of regular military training (supposed to have been paused but I wouldn't bet on it).

Fire and Emergency's current problems largely spring from identity politics using DEI not merit based hiring, the problems of the public service generally. The fall out from this is expensive for the taxpayer.

Luxon is virtue signalling when he talks about being razor focused on growing the economy. His words don't match his actions. Leaving the public service to their own devices for the last three years, continuing hiring like-minded activists to push their ideology is stymying the economy.

Nurses having to do treaty related cultural safety courses not related to nursing is putting people off applying as is the Auckland University charging large amounts for compulsory treaty courses for international students with no relation to their interests or study programmes. Act's advocacy has stopped this for NZ students.

Recruitment is right down in the defence force which has a Maori woman in charge with her husband in a (relatively) newly created role putting the 'Maori world view' before the required training. This is nepotism writ large and apparently too politically incorrect to question in a taxpayer funded public service where billions of dollars are scheduled to be spent on resources. Is it not ludicrous and a strain on the economy if 'razor focus' is not given to merit based hiring and appropriate training of the personnel so they are ready for action?

Two years on since the avoidable sinking of the Manawanui, commanded by a woman unqualified to be on the bridge, there has been little sign of returning to merit based hiring and common sense in the defence force and our public service generally.

Reports cited a total project/acquisition value of the Manawanui around NZ$147 million (or roughly NZ$129 million adjusted for inflation from its original 2018 cost.)

This is the economic price we paid in politically correct NZ, the laughing stock of the world, where media censorship prevails and expressing an opinion about this expensive catastrophe was met with accusations of misogyny by the, then, Defence minister Judith Collins.

And there is the little matter of hundreds of millions gifted for Marae upgrades by Ardern and continued under Luxon, for properties which are privately owned and don't pay rates; lower taxes for Maori businesses; Maori corporate welfare, race based funding the supportive media turns a blind eye to; along with payments by businesses to appease Maori, tens of millions in the case of the Port of Tauranga to get a project started.

This must be seen by overseas investors as a barrier to doing business in this country. Remember Russell Coutts response when one dolphin, quite capable of swimming out of the way, ruined a Sail GP event in Lyttelton harbour in March 2024. His response: 'Maori have all the power'. He resisted all entreaties to go back to Lyttelton.

That was an opportunity for the PM at the beginning of his term to make a stand against New Zealand's burgeoning two tier race based system, Apartheid, and advocate for one law for all. There have been dozens of opportunities since, he has failed everyone.

Three years on from the Jacinda's reign her DEI ideology is thriving and becoming more embedded as our PM has stood by and done nothing. Soon the people will speak and all National's chickens will come home to roost.

Let’s hope it’s not on the other side of the barn.

Further information: The MMP Math Secret: Maurice Williamson on Strategic Voting & Seat Overhangs #nzpol

Wendy Geus is a former speechwriter and generalist communications advisor in local government. She now writes for the pure love of it.