Events of the past few days evoke the question not whether this Labour government has lost the plot, but whether they ever had one to start with. Especially since being unexpectedly catapulted into government in 2017 through the spite of utu-driven NZ First leader Winston Peters, who blamed National Party sources for the revelation that he had received an overpayment of his pension.
I’m not sure which is Winston’s greater motivator: egotism or petulance. But it’s a bit rich for him to emerge from his enforced electoral hibernation last weekend at his party’s annual general meeting, with criticism of the rabble which he inflicted on the country in 2017, ignoring the plurality of votes given to the previous government of Bill English.
Instead, what we needed from Winston (and still need if he is to regain even a modicum of the populist credibility he enjoyed in his prime) is twofold:
Firstly, an apology for allowing his utu driven urge to override his acceptance of majority electoral rule in 2017 (and his obvious failure to undertake the political due diligence that would have exposed Jacinda Ardern’s hidden agenda of socialist globalism and racial separatism).
Secondly, an assurance that if returned to Parliament in 2023, NZ First will give first opportunity to form a government to the party that wins the highest number of votes.
I’m not sure enough New Zealanders will want to run the risk of supporting NZ First again, but even I, as an avowed lifelong National Party supporter, must acknowledge that in its 2017-20 term of coalition, Winston’s party did act as a handbrake on Labour’s thinly-disguised plan to subordinate our sovereignty to the world rule aspirations of the self-appointed global elite minority. A minority who are using the over-arching authority of the United Nations Organisation to tell us from their ivory towers how we hoi polloi should live our lives.
According to the New Zealand Herald report, Winston seems to have burned his bridges with Labour:
“Peters used his speech at the party’s AGM in Auckland today to slam a multitude of parties and policies including Labour, National, the Greens, the use of the word ‘Aotearoa’ instead of ‘New Zealand’ in Government reports, the Auckland cycle bridge, Auckland light rail, the vaccine rollout and ‘Ngati Woke’. Peters accused Labour of bad faith politics last term by ‘deliberately’ suppressing the He Puapua report, for ‘breath-taking economic illiteracy’ in its feebate scheme, and for pushing through infrastructure – such as Auckland’s $785 million cycle bridge – without doing the proper costings”.
Stuff also reported:
“But Labour was not alone: Also on Peters’ hit list at his party’s annual meeting were the media, the Greens, National, the Maori Party, cyclists, ‘cancel culture,’ and the increased usage of te reo in public life – particularly the phrase ‘Aotearoa.’ Who signed up to this plan to change New Zealand’s name? Who was asked. When were you asked?” Peters said. He took particular issue with the fact the Climate Change Commission used the word ‘Aotearoa’ more than 1300 times in a recent report but ‘New Zealand’ just 161 times.”
In his long career in Parliament, Winston has seldom failed to read changes in public mood, and his AGM roasting of his former coalition partner Labour, once again confirmed his feel for populism.
He will have noted two recent media about turns: Andrea Vance in the Sunday Star Times (on which we commented last week), and more recently in the Herald when Matthew Hooton advised National to sink the Climate Change Commission in an article that made excellent sense:
“This includes how we work and make money, but Carr and his commission’s ambitions are much bigger, including what amounts to constitutional change. This is the commission pursuing a wider agenda at the expense of its first statutory purpose, to mitigate climate change. Richard Prebble rightly called this socialist quackery…
“Even worse, remember that so far the commission has made recommendations only about mitigation, which it knows will be ineffective. How much more Kampuchean will its advice become when it reveals, after the next election, what massive changes it demands to how we live our lives in order to adapt?…
“(Judith) Collins is fast losing whatever confidence she ever had in Carr. If Ardern and Shaw won’t get rid of Carr, Collins should admit she was right all along and pull the plug.”
nzherald.
Back to my opening questions: has Labour lost the plot? Did they ever have one? Yes, it seems there is a plot, at least in the mind of its leader, Ardern. But it’s a plot more related to He Puapua, and pleasing the mandarins at the UN rather than serving the best interests of Kiwis.
Meantime, the National Party is at last showing signs of waking up from its own hibernation following the electoral rout of 2020. Next Saturday in Wellington there is to be a Special General Meeting to consider changes to the party constitution, designed to overcome problems that many party members feel contributed to that dismal result. They include changes to the way board members are elected, the possible addition of two extra appointed board members to fill in skill gaps, and a long overdue overhaul of the candidate selection process.
Then in August will be the Annual General Meeting in Auckland under the new rules, with the likelihood of new faces at the head of the organisation.
In Parliament, the National Caucus is firmly in the control of Leader the Hon. Judith Collins, who has insisted that the party organisation again remind the country of its principles:
- Loyalty to our country, its democratic principles and our Sovereign as Head of State.
- National and personal security
- Equal citizenship and equal opportunity
- Individual freedom and choice
- Personal responsibility
- Competitive enterprise and rewards for achievement
- Limited government
- Strong families and caring communities
- Sustainable development of our environment
As someone closely involved in the affairs of the National Party, I am at last seeing evidence of a determination to win and confidence in a return to government in 2023 with an enlarged and united caucus, backed by a revitalised party membership dedicated to the restoration of the values that make New Zealand Godzone.
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