JC: Labour Continues to Spend Our Money Hand over Fist

David Seymour has another Ministry to blow up, or to put it more kindly, dispense with. Oh, wait, no he hasn’t, it’s the same one he targeted last time. The Ministry of Pacific Islands Peoples. I have to admit it’s not needed, along with a number of other PC ministries who are nothing more than a drain on the long-suffering taxpayer. These ethnic ministries come under the heading of wasteful spending. We have no idea what our hard-earned money is spent on. We’ve never heard of any useful plans or outcomes.

Muriel Newman: The Toxic Co-Governance Agenda

The Rotorua District Council (Representation Arrangements) Bill is dead – and long may it stay that way. The Bill attempted to introduce co-governance with the effect that it advantaged voters on the Maori Roll over all others.

The final blow was the ruling by the Attorney General that by breaching the constitutional principle of equal representation for everyone – a cornerstone of our representative democracy – the Bill was discriminatory.

This fact that co-governance has now been found to be discriminatory must surely signal an end to this whole toxic agenda.

Muriel Newman: Nothing to Fear

In a week when Russia invaded the Ukraine, and when the protesters in Wellington scored a major victory with the removal of vaccine mandates for children, the Government has embarked on a charm offensive to quell the growing public opposition to its racist He Puapua agenda.

He Puapua is, of course, Labour’s ‘masterplan’ to replace democracy with co-governance and tribal rule.

JC: The Unity Is a Façade

In light of Chris Hipkins’s “captain’s call” to stymie the prospect of taxing the ‘rich pricks’, he has put himself between a rock and a hard place. His choice was to try and capture the middle ground or not offend the loyal left. I think he made the wrong call. The middle ground, or swing voters, have options. The loyal left don’t. He needs them to be onside with his policies.

The other problem, as I pointed out in my last article, is that the middle ground in this election will be a lot smaller. Jacinda Ardern has seen to that. For instance farmers will return to their natural home on the right, be it National or ACT. Their strategic ploy last time came back to bite them big time. Voting Labour didn’t get rid of the Greens; it just rear-ended them with over-regulation.

Graham Adams: Labour’s Three Waters refresh is a tragi-comedy

The government’s disdain for democracy is a gift to National and Act.

Last week, we watched the Prime Minister rebrand the contentious Three Waters project with a name so banal it is surprising he didn’t fall asleep while announcing it. “Affordable Water Reform” is, in essence, a Post-It note to stick on your computer while you struggle to come up with an arresting title. If you suggested “Affordable Water Reform” to your colleagues in an advertising agency they’d assume you were joking.

There’s a lot that is risible in Labour’s ongoing attempts to find a Three Waters arrangement the nation might even grudgingly accept. The Water Services Entities Act was passed in December — and within hours a second bill that included extensive amendments to the first was introduced to Parliament. In fact, that bill is as long as the Act it seeks to amend. Now, the government will introduce and pass further legislation to implement the changes Hipkins announced last Thursday — as well as “associated matters” — all before this year’s election.

Garrick Tremain: Minstrel show

 Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on Maoridom's new puppet! 

Graham Adams: Besieged Ardern pins hopes on a managed retreat

Labour won in a landslide in 2020 but now favours a tactical withdrawal to minimise losses.

A tactical withdrawal is said to be the most difficult of all military operations. A commander has to take his troops backwards while maintaining contact with the enemy and not being pushed into headlong retreat. The challenge is to not lose discipline during the operation.

It can become necessary when the enemy is simply too strong and an army needs to leave the battlefield to avoid a crushing defeat, or it can be simply to pull back to reach an area that is easier to defend.

Trailing National in the polls, Ardern has decided to retreat and present a smaller target to opponents by postponing the implementation of contentious policies or reducing their scope.