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The Curtain Closes…
You have to hand it to Aotearoa - voters don’t do things by halves. People wanted change, and by golly, change they got. Baby, bathwater; rubber ducky - all out.
There is something about struggling through a global crisis that even when we prevail, there seems to be an innate need to get rid of those who successfully led us through trials and tribulations.
We led the world in keeping Covid19 out - albeit temporarily - until a sizeable chunk of the population could be vaccinated. Not only did the vaccine save thousands of lives - it saved our hospital system from inundation and collapse from a Biblical flood of sick and dying:
“I've recently been overseas for the first time in three years, and colleagues in Europe were talking about how miserable and horrible that time was, when they were seeing even healthy, middle-aged colleagues dying of this infection, that is frontline health workers.
We were spared that.
If we'd had the mortality rate of the United States, for instance, we would have had 20,000 people die over that period.” - Prof. Michael Baker, epidemiologist.
We can thank the heroic leadership of Jacinda Ardern, Chris Hipkins, Ashley Bloomfield, et al, for the Herculean effort in keeping five million plus New Zealanders safe, and bringing home 229,958 people through MIQ. (All while naysayers, conspiracy nuts, opportunistic Opposition politicians, and clickbait chasing media did their damndest to undermine our collective efforts.)
Voters showed their appreciation of the Labour government by throwing them out on 14 October.
It wouldn’t be the first time. A quick perusal of mid-20th century history brings up the curious fact that after leading the British people through World War Two, those same British voters rewarded Winston Churchill by throwing him out of government in 1945.
Whilst there were multiple factors involved in Labour’s stunning victory in the 1945 election (an appealing progressive social policy platform being primary), there was also this salient observation by Klaus W. Larres, writing for The Conversation:
“The six-week election campaign in June and July 1945 sought to sway voters exhausted by six devastating years of war. They wanted a view of a bright future.
Soldiers in the field, too, were fed up with fighting and looked forward to a new age of prosperity and peace.”
In 21st Century idiom, the citizens of 1945 Britain were ‘over it’, and wanted to ‘move on’.
Ardern and her colleagues had won the ‘war’. Now New Zealanders “were fed up with fighting and looked forward to a new age of prosperity and peace” - which Luxon and Seymour were promising in spades. (Even though most of us knew their numbers didn’t add up and their snake oil was never really taken seriously.)
The Circus rides into Town - slowly
The torrent of impatient whining from media, commentators, political pundits, and Uncle Tom Cobbly, as coalition negotiations progressed was a classic moment in our brief, post-colonial history. A few dozen (hundred?) voices all clamouring “Are we there yet? Are we there yet?”…
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If ever there was a moment to illustrate our immaturity as a society, as a nation, we were witnessing it first-hand.
As daily/evening commentary from the political “editors” from RNZ, NewstalkZB, TV1, TV3, et al, clamoured incessantly, public opinion unsurprisingly appeared to be influenced accordingly:
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It is rare (actually - never!) that I agree with National’s gaff-prone, often-incoherent Leader, Christopher Luxon. But when he admonished media critics:
"I get where people are at with it but we are in an MMP system - this is the nature of our system.
If you think about other countries that have MMP, it can take five months to get an agreement together - we definitely don't want that. Rest assured; we won't be doing that."
— he had a valid point.
Compare our three weeks (from Special Votes announced on 3 November, to Coalition announcement on 24 November) with coalition negotiations in Germany - from where we modelled our MMP system:
“Elections in Germany took place some eight weeks ago. The coalition talks began on October 21.
If the election of Scholz as chancellor goes ahead as planned, it will have taken 73 days to form a new government following the elections. This compares favorably with the 171 days needed after the 2017 elections to form a so-called grand coalition of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and the SPD.”
With that in mind, it doesn’t take much to hear Stuff’s Glenn McConnell sound like a petulant ten year old:
“But it is taking longer, whatever way you add the numbers. And the public is fed up with how long it’s taking, according to new polling released exclusively to Stuff and the Tova podcast…
…The negotiations passed a significant milestone on Thursday, 13 days after the official vote count was released. In 2017, Ardern, the Greens, and Peters sealed a deal to form a government just 12 days after the official results.”
At the conclusion of coalition negotiations, Luxon lauded the country:
“I thank the public for their patience since Election Day. It’s a credit to our country that we now handle the MMP process with such calm and maturity.”
“Calm and maturity” are not the words that immediately leap to mind after enduring the media circus for those three weeks. Colin Peacock on RNZ’s Mediawatch, on 26 November, summed up his own reservations when it came to our mainstream media:
“If any TV producer out there is tempted to pitch a docu-drama to TVonAir, telling the tale of how this government was formed - please don’t. There’s been more than enough made of it by our media these past few weeks, to last us more than a lifetime.”
We really need to grow up as a country. Or at least some in the Fourth Estate?
Presenting the next act, the illusionists!
If David Seymour and his deputy, Brooke Van Velden, were aspiring to be Aotearoa’s answer to Trump and his “alternative facts”, they would to have to fight Winston Peters for that tarnished crown.
Seymour was scathing in his denouncement of the recent National Māori Action Day protests throughout the country. In a press statement dated 5 December - re-posted here verbatim and in full - Seymour was hardly shy with his derision:
“This morning protestors backed by Te Pāti Māori have attempted to block roads and disrupt the opening of Parliament and New Zealander’s lives just because they’re unhappy with the election result,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.
"It's a sad day when a political party is protesting equal rights. They’re on the wrong side of history. New Zealanders want a respectful debate on the constitutional future of our country and that's what they've voted for.
"ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill and proposed referendum are needed to ensure a healthy debate on whether our future lies with co-government and different rights based on ancestry, or whether we want to be a modern, multi-ethnic liberal democracy where every New Zealander has the same rights.
“Te Pāti Māori doesn’t respect democracy in New Zealand. New Zealanders have elected a government to restore the economy, get crime under control, provide effective public services, and end division through co-government. The sooner Te Pāti Māori come to terms with what New Zealand voted for, and started providing some policy solutions that will help people instead of divisive theatrics that cause more division, the better.
“Back in October, when asked by Newshub what he would do if he could change Parliament, Co-Leader Rawiri Waititi said “I’m not a fan of democracy, because democracy is a tyranny of the majority.”
“This explains the behaviour of Te Pāti Māori, they’re not here to uphold democracy, they’re here to wreck it.
Note Seymour’s opening statement: “This morning protestors backed by Te Pāti Māori have attempted to block roads and disrupt the opening of Parliament and New Zealander’s lives just because they’re unhappy with the election result.”
Now compare that denouncement with Seymour’s views on the occupation of Parliament in February last year. As well as Parliament grounds, surrounding roads; private properties; driveways; etc, were occupied by up to several thousand people. Main roads throughout the precinct were blocked and impassable: Molesworth Street; Hill Street, Aitken Street; Kate Sheppard Place; top of Lambton Quay; Bunny Street; Bowen Street, and Bunny Street:
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Seymour’s response? This:
“The protest is a symbol of frustration that is felt more widely than by a few hundred or even a few thousand people camping on Parliament’s lawn. It goes beyond vaccines and even vaccine mandates. It symbolises frustration with a response that started so well but has become increasingly forlorn, costly, and out of step with the world.
[…]
There’s also the social cohesion lost when people feel marginalised. The Government seems to have almost gleefully excluded the unvaccinated. You don’t have to agree with their views on vaccination, I don’t, to be compassionate towards fellow humans.
[…]
What is needed is a mature de-escalation of the situation outside Parliament. That requires concessions on both sides. The protesters need to recognise that you can’t really talk about civil liberties when you’re threatening violence yourself. You can’t talk about restrictions on activity when you’re making it impossible for businesses in the area to operate.
[…]
What people outside Parliament and beyond want more than anything is to have such questions asked and answered in an open and honest way. They don’t feel they’ve had that from the Government. Many feel the media have let them down along the way.”
(For full context, his op-ed is available here.)
Seymour was practically an apologist mouthpiece for the Occupiers. He barely mentioned “block[ing] roads and disrupt[ing] the opening of Parliament and New Zealander’s lives just because they’re unhappy with the election result”.
Whilst Seymour made passing reference to “Clearing the streets, [and] letting businesses function”, the tenor of his commentary was largely sympathetic. How else to interpret comments like “the protest is a symbol of frustration that is felt more widely than by a few hundred or even a few thousand people camping on Parliament’s lawn” and “there’s also the social cohesion lost when people feel marginalised”
The reason for the ACT leader’s doublethink on these two protests is crystal clear and hardly requires a degree in Political Science; the National Māori Action Day was a protest against many of ACT’s anti-Maori policies and divisive rhetoric. David doesn’t like that kind of free speech.
The Parliamentary Occupation was a protest against the then-Labour government. David approves of that kind of free speech.
He certainly did not dismiss the Occupiers as simply “unhappy with the [2020] election result”.
Seymour’s conflicting standards are blindingly obvious for those that care to see. He certainly devotes enough column-centimetres to explaining his opinions. Ad nauseum.
ACT’s Deputy Leader, Brooke Van Velden, also did herself no favours by falsely asserting on TVNZ’s Breakfast show:
“Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment looked at this ban after the fact, he said it's likely to increase global emissions because we still need electricity as a source.”
Except… he didn’t. Parliamentary Commissioner Simon Upton called out Van Velden for mis-representing him:
“I most definitely did not say that the ban would increase global emissions.”
Upton went further:
“As someone whose role is to serve our Parliament, I put a great deal of effort into trying to help all MPs make sense of the often-complex issues they grapple with. In return, I rely on Members who wish to cite me in political debate to do so accurately.
You correctly cited my concern that the original ban was not the subject of a careful analysis of the costs and benefits. I would say that of any decision relating to the environment. Five years have passed since the imposition of the ban and much has changed since then.”
Two days later, the blatant mis-information was/is still on ACT’s website:
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And politicians wonder why the public view their credibility on the same level as advertising executives? In a 2010 Readers' Digest New Zealand survey, our politicians ranked below real estate agents, car salespeople, and sex workers (Which is grossly unfair to sex workers, whose profession is possibly the most transparent of all.)
Perhaps Ms Van Velden believes ACT supporters will still vote for her Party regardless of whether or not she tells the truth? If true, that is a sad day for democracy. (Or at least for ACT.)
Anyway, the election is done and dusted. Campaigning is over. You can stop BSing us now David and Brooke.
If not, at least we can still trust sex workers.
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References
Stuff media: New Zealand's Covid-19 response saved 20,000 lives - research
MoBIE: Managed isolation and quarantine data
The Daily Blog: When will Michael Barnett stop whinging, whining and bleating?
Stuff media: Covid-19 - National Party calls for pandemic restrictions to be phased back
NZ Herald: Man claims Rotorua's Sudima isolation hotel had cracked walls, mould, and broken furniture
The Conversation: When a winner becomes a loser: Winston Churchill was kicked out of office in the British election of 1945
Interest.co.nz: Three economists think National's foreign buyers tax could come up $500 million short each year
The Post: Groundhog day as coalition talks drag on
ODT: Opinion: Luxon's embarrassing coalition negotiations
The Spinoff: Live up-dates - What might be holding up coalition talks?
Stuff media: Live - Government coalition talks still stuck on 'policy issues'
Yahoo News: New Zealand 'circus' coalition talks drag on
1News: How long does National have to negotiate a coalition?
1News: What are the three issues stalling coalition negotiations?
RNZ: 'The clock is ticking': Talks to form a coalition government continue
Stuff media: Public fed up with government negotiations, which have outlasted 2017 talks
RNZ: Coalition talks - Poll shows 66% of people think negotiations taking too long
Newshub: Election 2023 - Christopher Luxon says he can assure coalition negotiations won't take five months
RNZ: Timeline - Three-way coalition government comes together
DW: Germany - Governing coalition deal unveiled
Stuff media: Public fed up with government negotiations, which have outlasted 2017 talks
Scoop: National, ACT And New Zealand First To Deliver For All New Zealanders
Scoop: Te Pāti Māori Protesting Democracy Itself
Stuff media: David Seymour on why the protesters should be heard
RNZ: Mediawatch - 26 November 2023
ODT: Parliament protest - Arrest after car 'driven at police'
RNZ: ACT MP Brooke van Velden wrongly quotes Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment
ACT Party: Energy
Newshub: The most trustworthy professions in New Zealand and other countries
NZ Herald: So, just how trusted is your profession?
Mastodon: @fmacskasy - snap election prediction - david seymour
Additional
RNZ: Distractions assail coalition as it lays out ambitious agenda
Other Blogs
Nick's Kōrero: Smokefree Fallout and a High Profile Resignation.
Nick's Kōrero: "Your Circus, Your Clowns."
Previous related blogposts
Chris Luxon threatens New Zealanders with The Big Fiscal Stick
The Bewildering World of Christopher Luxon - Health reforms
The Bewildering World of Christopher Luxon - Don't you know who I am, Bottomfeeders!
The Bewildering World of Christopher Luxon - Leadership, Labour vs National
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Acknowledgement and thanks: Chris Slane
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= fs =
Indeed, Mac. I was considering adding that as well as a second example of his double-standards.... but the blogpost was getting lengthy as it was.
But there will be upcoming stories, so it's a point I've "filed away".
Unless this government falls apart, I suspect your prediction of privatisation may sadly come to pass.
A very good and factual account of the past, the present and the future Frank. Let's not forget that Seymour also had no problem with the Groundswell, swivel eyed supporters and their blocking of roads. The future looks bleak as the privatisation agenda starts all over and replicates the Rogernomics era where the rich, who paid for the election outcome, get richer and the poor old working classes are forgotten.