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For those of us waiting patiently for Jacinda Ardern to de-laminate and fall apart at the seams, this week has seen the Prime Minister ticking yet another “walk on water” box.
Just when we begin to see the writing on the wall, as this disastrous government of imbeciles stumbles from appalling disaster to appalling disaster with broken promise after broken promise. With ministers showing levels of ineptitude never before seen in this country’s history. With Green philosophy and climate change nonsense captivating their thinking because they’re not clever enough or are simply too lazy to do the research.
With all the dastardly things they’ve managed to get wrong, their leader continues tiptoe through the droppings with none of it sticking and then, out of the blue, yet another mysterious masterstroke.
Jacinda Ardern yesterday stepped up to the mark and said what needed to have been said years ago with regard to the Erebus disaster. In a joint presentation with Air New Zealand which included a note from Her Majesty the Queen, Ms Ardern delivered an unequivocal, sincere and complete apology to all the families.
Finally, this puts to rest once and for all the outrageous suggestion that has lingered all these years, that the accident was the fault of the captain or crew, originally floated by the then Inspector of Air Accidents whose experience might well have been more appropriate to light aircraft than wide bodied commercial jets.
Justice Mahon seems to also have been vindicated despite Muldoon throwing him under a bus all those years ago and despite the controversy. Many always believed he was completely correct in declaring he’d been forced to listen to “an orchestrated litany of lies”.
The company changed the flight co-ordinates and Captain Collins, a thorough and meticulous man who took pride in his professionalism, was entitled to expect that the aircraft would be on the course he had been briefed on.
The aircraft wasn’t where it was supposed to be – flying straight up McMurdo Sound where there was unlimited flat terrain ahead. They were, in fact, some 30 kilometres further south on a direct course to Mt Erebus and the rest is history.
In making a public apology on the 40th anniversary of this tragedy, the Prime Minister has finally delivered closure for many people and not before time. She has done the right thing and come out looking like a glossy magazine cover photo covered in that magical fairy dust we all thought was flittering away in the wind.
The “great unwashed” will remember occasions like this where Ms Ardern is absolutely at her best and will probably completely forget all the disasters.
Poor Simon Bridges continues to look very average while the PM hits just enough boundaries to keep her very much in the game.
Hot on the heels of a disastrous poll result and a not so well received policy release about gangs, the National Party seem unable to get any traction at all.
It won’t be far from game, set and match if she is able to keep this up and if the opposition is unable to find something that resonates soundly with the electorate.
