If Cyclone Gabrielle has taught us anything it is that when it comes to so-called climate change or global warming, charity begins at home. It’s past time we stopped trying to save the world (which we can’t) and looked at the crises we have in our own backyard. These crises should be top of the government’s priorities. Most have been caused by either government action or inaction. They are:
- Electricity supply
- Antiquated pipes and drains
- Banning oil and gas exploration
- Closing Marsden Point
- Lack of road maintenance
- Wasteful spending
There are others. The above were the first six that came to mind.
The first thing we need to do is to exit the Paris Climate Accord. New Zealand has pledged to give $1.4 billion a year from 2017 to 2027. That is $14 billion. This to a talkfest where the left elite congregates to talk about reducing climate emissions. The irony is most have flown in and out in their private jets thereby adding to the emissions. Where does this money go? What is it used for? Does anyone know? Funding this nonsense has to stop.
Think of the use $14 billion could be put to in the interests of sorting out this country’s infrastructure inadequacies.
On Tuesday night’s news locals around the country were bemoaning the fact that the same things happen time and time again and nothing is done to solve the problems. The Kopu – Hikuai road to the Coromandel is a good example. Every time it gets hit it’s a repair job, which is not an answer. It needs billions spent on a permanent fix.
Government, central and local, now need to prioritise spending in these areas. Forget cycleways, trams to the airport and other ‘nice to have’ ideological insanities, we need money spent where it is most needed. Fixing water issues doesn’t mean Maori ownership of water, it means replacing ancient water infrastructure. In order to get this sorted, which will take years if not decades, the Maori elite and radicals need to get off their high horses regarding their own agenda and pitch in to rectify the problems as one people.
The Treaty of Waitangi has got nothing to do with the issues the country is now facing. This is no time for considering whether some large supernatural being lies around the next corner. Nanaia Mahuta should be out of the country. This is a time for getting on with the job and looking like the first-world country we are supposed to be.
Whether it’s climate change or not is immaterial to me. There are huge issues to be attended to. In Auckland alone, there are a myriad including the building of houses on cliff tops, the amount of infill housing allowable and building on flood plains.
These all demand urgent action initially at the Parliamentary level. It was therefore astonishing to see MPs give themselves another week off following their Christmas break under the pretence they needed to be in their electorates. 75 of the 120 were already in Wellington. This is an election year. The country is facing one of its biggest disasters and the politicians decide that in view of the weather they will not convene for another week. This in my view is appalling leadership and, like their Covid behaviour, looks arrogant and self-centred.
Covid saw them refusing to meet with concerned members of the public. Gabrielle sees them refusing to even meet amongst themselves.
The ACT party can take a bow as they disagreed. National, instead of going for the ace card played the joker and went along with Robertson’s idiocy. To play the ace card would have been to say that the country is facing one of its biggest natural disasters and Parliament should reconvene immediately in a spirit of cross-party cooperation and start work on formulating how the disaster is best addressed in the long term.
I must give Chris Hipkins some credit for doing a good job and dressing appropriately. At least we were spared the sight of a PM clothed in a macintosh, brolly in hand and hugging anyone she could lay her hands on. It’s also time for the climate change talking heads in the Green Party to get real. If you want New Zealand to be a world leader cutting our emissions won’t make one iota of difference globally. James Shaw, flying in a hired private jet, telling China, India and America to cut theirs and ensuring they do, will. That, of course, is a pipe dream.
This disaster is a huge wake-up call to the country as a whole. It demands a total rethink of spending priorities. Roading and land stability are now right up there with health and education as a top priority. We are talking billions upon billions to sort out the roading infrastructure, not piddly little bits of safety barriers here and there. Then there’s the engineering expertise required and the workers needed. Michael Wood needs to have a mental reset. His priorities must change. Grant Robertson likewise.
By way of giving the Maori Party a mention, the last thing we need right now is Rawiri Waititi creating his own disaster telling us we need to drop Valentine’s Day for Captain Cook Day. Apparently, this is so he can celebrate the murder and feasting on the body of a ‘coloniser’. This is the way to create harmony in the country and sort out the many problems of 2023 is it? I thought Maori were supposed to be good navigators. Putting his oar into something like he proposes, he risks sailing his waka into a storm of his own making. With friends like Rawiri Waititi who needs enemies?
Tough economic times are ahead. The situation the country now finds itself in will only be rectified by all people coming together as one. This is no time for arguing over race, colour or creed. We don’t need the racist propaganda constantly perpetuated by the Maori Party and the Labour Maori Caucus. If a Maori perspective is to be applied it is this – we all need to be in the same waka rowing in the same direction. To not do so risks this country becoming a member of the third world. Kia Kaha is never more needed than now.
