Jacinda Ardern has announced that six Labour MPs are retiring from parliament…at the next election, which is 10 or 11 months away. Why is she doing this now? This makes no sense to me, and I cannot recall any time when another prime minister has had to do this.
If she thinks it will improve voter confidence in her Government’s line up, it is unlikely. We all know that this Government comprises idiots, starting at the top. Shuffling idiots around still means we are governed by idiots, and nothing is likely to change that.
But I think this is an effort by Ardern to shore up votes next year. She thinks that, with a cabinet reshuffle, she can restore confidence in her Government and by default, in herself.
You have to ask the question though…who exactly are the burning new talented MPs just dying to become ministers?
I can’t think of anyone. My local MP, Ginny Andersen, is someone who only made the news when she ripped off the taxpayer by renting out an office and claiming expenses that had been funnelled back into the Labour Party coffers. But hey…this is nothing compared to some of the rorts executed by Nanaia Mahuta, so what is the big deal?
I honestly think that if the class of 2020 had brought in some serious talent, we would know about them by now. This current Labour Government is big on numbers but very short on talent. They have already turned one rookie MP, Ayesha Verrall, into an associate minister, which shows how little talent they really have.
Or does this signal big changes coming into the government next year, to try to make them more palatable to voters? With the bulk of their objectionable legislation (All Waters, Fair Pay Agreements) out of the way, are they now going to try a shift towards the centre to try to claw back votes? Now that Mahuta has done irrevocable damage to local government, will she be moved away from that portfolio, with a new, less radical minister taking over? Will Ayesha Verrall, an actual health professional (although an academic rather than a practitioner) become the new health minister, moving Andrew Little into a portfolio that he might actually be able to manage?
I think that might be it. She is going to shift those ministers who have caused problems for this Government out of their portfolios. Those that replace them will not have long to prove themselves, and chances are, most of them will not make too many waves. They will go into the election without a string of scandals and unpopular legislation behind them. They will be the new faces of socialism – less radical, more palatable and with more appeal to voters.
The public will forget about all the mistakes the Government made. Or so Jacinda may think.
Grant Robertson has signalled that, next year, the government will suddenly become fiscally conservative, to try to show that Labour is just as capable of sound economic management as is National. To prove this, in the middle of a cost of living crisis, they have decided to restore the 25 cent petrol levies they removed earlier this year. (I’m not going to mention restoring full public transport fares because apparently halving them only increased public transport usage by about three per cent.) Just as petrol prices become slightly more reasonable, the government is going to whack them back up again. Yeah…that will work, won’t it?
People are not likely to forget that the cost of living crisis was caused by rampant inflation, caused by quantitative easing… brought on by this Government. I know a lot of people don’t understand this, but they do understand that government spending over the last two years has been completely out of control. Yes, we had a pandemic, but we also had millions of dollars in consultants’ fees for bike bridges that are never going to go ahead…and we are all paying the price now.
Jacinda has promised that next year will be different. She is betting the House on it, because otherwise, the House goes to someone else. But, like the ‘Year of Delivery’, it will amount to nothing. This Government couldn’t deliver itself out of a paper bag.
Don’t assume they won’t try though, and if it doesn’t work, expect them to get really nasty. Remember 2008, when they sent people to Sydney to try to find the dirt on John Key? Put nothing past these guys. They have already shown us how important democracy is to them. They are happy to give away ratepayers’ assets to iwi and to try to entrench their legislation so that it cannot be overturned by a future government. They claimed that it was to prevent “privatisation” of our water assets. But giving the assets to iwi is privatisation…in all but name. What they mean is that they don’t want ratepayers to ever have them back.
So much for democracy. I think there will be a few more rats deserting the sinking government ship by the middle of next year.
