The Greens have had the mat well and truly pulled from under them in the past week by Chippy keeping on the fuel tax rebate, to the chagrin of Jack Tame on Q+A who accused him of adding ten to twenty tons of emissions by his actions.
Next to go was the $568m clean car upgrade where you could trade in your rust bucket for an electric car. Another policy to go into the Siberian wilderness was Eugenie Sage’s refund policy on empty container bottles.
Perhaps this was revenge for her underhanded meddling in 3/5 Waters legislation. Any objections by Shaw the Climate Minister were brushed off by Hipkins as if Shaw was a fly heading for his meat pie.
But why not have a crack at Chloe Swarbrick as well while we are at it?
Yes, we can do away with voting for 16-year-olds. Hipkins probably thought I am 44 years old, these 16-year-olds could do away with me and, by the look of these recent school-kid protest marches, they intend to. It would be like voting for Christmas. Even my name is in there somewhere in the word Christmas.
Of course, Luxon and Seymour countered with ‘Labour is only doing away with the tiddlers’. Perhaps Luxon now regrets slapping his own MP Pugh in the stocks so readily when she asked Shaw the Climate Minister to provide proof that Cyclone Hale and Gabrielle were caused by the Green version of climate change. National reacted more like the Soviet Politburo than the ‘broad church’ it is supposed to be. Luxon should have known better than to take on a woman who has been hit by lightning three times. Clearly, Zorro or the equivalent is on her side.
Luxon was probably terrified he would go down the same route as Morrison in Australia who lost out to TEAL in the wealthy outer suburbs. New Zealand has probably not got the same number of wealthy Blue-Green voters that its neighbour has. Therefore the Green influence was not quite the horror that Luxon had anticipated.
If Labour were doing away with the ‘tiddlers’ as Luxon and Seymour accused them of they are not waiting around for the election to give out bribes. They managed to squeeze in a little cutie. Superannuation and benefits linked to inflation. Talk about stealing Winston’s thunder. What is left in his arsenal now? Possibly 3/5 Waters but what if Chippy tweaks that as well?
It’s noticeable now that if Luxon heads in one direction with policies, Hipkins will reverse in the opposite direction. It’s like he has uplifted a song from the Hollywood musical ‘Annie Get Your Gun’. I can do anything better than you. Yes I can! Yes I can! And it is being confirmed in the latest Kantar Poll. Labour is ahead by 36% to National’s 34%.
National has had a win by default with the resignation of Stuart Nash as Police Minister for breaking the Cabinet Manual Rule 4.14. And possibly the Policing Act 2008. He referred to Coster as his mate on the Hosking show.
This was a blurring of the rules in the separation of the judiciary and the Police Minister.
But apart from this hiccup, it looks like the boy from the Hutt has gone back to his roots and his favourite meat pies. The ‘meat ‘ in the pie will be winning the next election.
Blow the Liberals in Grey Lynn and Wellington Central. What have they got to offer when it’s ‘Bread and Butter’ issues that take priority? Fortunately for Chippy, these two commodities have dropped in price. It is looking more and more like a ‘Red October’ if Hipkins keeps the course. The Uni-Party of Luxon has backfired on him.
The Irving Berlin song of 1946 is probably appropriate for Chippy at the moment: “I can do anything (better than you)” The barometer of Chris and Chris in the NZ Herald favoured Luxon last week, with his subsidy on childcare but I think Hipkins will win it this week with his anti-Green, pro ‘everyman’ moves.
Here is the song of the moment: “I can do Anything Better Than You”
“Anything you can do I can do better,No you Can’t,Yes I Can,No you Can’t, Yes I Can.Anything you can be I can be greater,Sooner or later I’m greater than You,No You’re Not, Yes I am.I can shoot a partridge with a single cartridge,I can get a sparrow with a bow and arrow,We can do almost anything,Can you bake a Pie? No!Well neither can I!
