Chris Trotter: Something Big

There are all kinds of political rumours, but they don’t get much bigger than: “The PM is about to resign.” 

When that rumour was relayed to me on Friday morning [19 March], my initial reaction was “Bullshit!” Wellington is a very intimate capital city, so the idea that such an important story could somehow be kept from the Parliamentary Press Gallery, struck me as fanciful. Were it not for the fact that my informant was “a usually reliable source”, I would have given the matter no more than a dismissive shake of the head. Instead, I decided to make some calls.

As I suspected, nothing remotely resembling a resignation rumour had been picked up by the Press Gallery. What I did hear, however, were concerns about “Jacinda”. The Prime Minister, I was told, was “out of sorts”, “morose”, “not her usual self”.

Clive Bibby: Oversight and Control are Not the Same Thing

 

As we enter the New Year, while basking in the sun on the beach and listening to our cricket team laying waste to all comers (unfortunately that is the only way to follow our heroes for most of the populace - unbelievably bad decision by NZ Cricket), at a time when most would want to forget the horrors of 2020, it is non-the-less appropriate that we spend some time taking stock of the things we should have learned from those debilitating 12 months.

For most of us, just surviving the virus would seem an achievement in itself and for that the Government can take credit - after all, that is the number one responsibility of any government when its people are under threat. But that responsibility is not a singular requirement of those who occupy the treasury benches - the other equally important role is to manage any crisis in a way that keeps us safe economically as well.

Point of Order: Without brakes there should be no holding back Ardern

Without brakes there should be no holding back Ardern – and the lobbyists are signalling their great expectations

Huge expectations now rest on the newly re-elected Ardern government. Just as the pioneering Labour government did in the 1930s under Michael Joseph Savage and the fourth Labour government did under David Lange in the 1980’s, it has won a stronger mandate to fulfill its programme.

So will it become truly transformational – as it first promised in 2017 – or will the economic recession threatening NZ overwhelm the new ministry?