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# Is Tracy Gagging on the KoolAid?
- URL: https://goodoil.news/is-tracy-gagging-on-the-koolaid/
- Published: 2019-07-22T22:00:30.000Z
- Updated: 2019-07-25T06:23:28.000Z
- Author: WH
- Tags: Media, NZ, Politics, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-17 04:14

At the end of a typical Tracy Watkins puff piece about our ‘Dear Leader’, ‘Comrade’ Ardern, Tracy snuck in a little reality as a reward for those who had waded through the syrup of the first 1000 or so words.

> \[…\] Labour’s flagship policy, KiwiBuild, is in tatters; there’s talk of a reset but no one seems to be sure **how it can resurrect a policy that’s so spectacularly failed**. Of the promised 100,0000 houses over 10 years, only 230 have materialised so far.  
>  
> The Government’s hundred day programme boosted the pockets of pensioners, beneficiaries, students, low income families – fees free student loans, paid parental leave, the winter energy payment, the best start grant and more – **yet there seems to be no palpable sense of people feeling better off.**

> And while there has been much fan fare about Labour’s first “wellbeing budget”, it could also be a stick to beat them with, if **people feel stuck in the same low-paid job, still unable to afford a house, and still can’t afford to take a holiday.**  
>  
> Even Labour’s core vote has sometimes felt let down as the government is forced to tread carefully on other reforms, like employment, because of historically low business confidence, or **the capital gains tax – now well and truly dead in the water**, crushing the hopes of a generation of young Kiwis left behind by soaring house prices.   
>  
> Meanwhile, there have been a **succession of mini-political scandals**; the nature of the 24/7 news cycle meaning they often overshadow the Government programme.  
>  
> The frustration of Ardern and her colleagues with how they are being viewed through the lens of major media is often obvious; she is increasingly using the power of her social media profile to reach out to her hundreds of thousands followers direct – either through Instagram stories, or Facebook Live posts.  
>  
> That is probably not surprising. **More than any other leader**, Ardern has an unparalleled platform for getting her message out unfiltered.

Perhaps an “in NZ” qualification is needed here? Trump is the master of getting the message out unfiltered.

> She knows it’s the extinguishment of **hope** that poses potentially the biggest threat to her re-election chances. She was elected on a huge bow wave of that **hope**; **hope** that a Labour government would fix a housing crisis that National refused to acknowledge, **hope** that it would do more to lift children and the poorest families out of poverty, **hope** that it would put more into social services, health and education, after years of belt tightening.  
>  
> And **hope** that Ardern’s promise of a “transformational government” would materially lift the lot of every day New Zealanders. \[…\]  
>  
> [Stuff](https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/114369999/jacinda-ardern-has-some-unfinished-business?ref=goodoil.news)

  
Perhaps Tracy is beginning to see that the Coalition is actually **hope**less?

If so, welcome aboard, Tracy. There are many who have realised that for a while. Electioneering slogans do not fix problems. The current standings in the Newshub poll are:

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/31/f4/31f4e20a-0315-499e-83ff-139e8eab53bf/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/newshub_poll.jpg)

76% say the government is doing a mostly bad job in spite of the scarves, scones and slippers.