Stuart Smith
National MP
Kaikoura
What a year 2022 has been, with the acceptance that Covid cannot be eliminated and the end of authoritarian mandates and freedom of movement being the highlights for me. Those who lived through World War II would have had more freedom of movement and expression than allowed during the Covid lockdowns.
The passing of Queen Elizabeth II ended the longest reign of a British monarch, with only New Zealanders born before 1952 having lived under another. King Charles III has started well and will have to continue in this vein for our current constitutional arrangements to survive. I support our constitutional arrangements, but New Zealand is much different today as we have undergone significant change in the 70 years since Queen Elizabeth’s coronation.
Our democracy has been taken somewhat for granted up till the reign of our want-to-be monarch, the Right Honourable Jacinda Ardern. With the discovery of her secret He Puapua manifesto, our democracy is now teetering on the brink.
The vehicle to deliver the foundations for He Puapua’s introduction is the Three Five Waters Act, which is not about enhancing the delivery of potable, storm and sewage water services; it is about entrenching the iwi elite to control these assets plus geothermal and coastal waters as well.
We have worked hard trying to slow down and stop the passage of the act to no avail. However, our campaign with anti-Three Five Waters hoardings and public meetings has resulted in growing public opposition to it.
Few support the theft of ratepayer assets outside those who will benefit directly. Nanaia Mahuta and Labour’s Maori caucus are the puppet masters, and Jacinda Ardern is the puppet. Few political leaders would allow this agenda to continue given the damage it is doing to their support. Either Jacinda Ardern is unaware of it, or she does not have the power to stop it. My money is on the latter.
The Labour backbenchers became increasingly uncomfortable when the legislation was being debated, with their heads down as if it had nothing to do with them. The next National government will repeal this legislation and return the assets to their rightful owners, the ratepayers.
This week we welcomed the new MP for Hamilton West Tama Potaka to caucus, after his stunning win last Saturday. While we were delighted with the result, the words of the Right Honourable Sir Winston Churchill are worth remembering; “Now, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
