Definitely not. There have been a few clangers recently. Some are hypocritical, some are laced with irony, some have both and some are straight out misleading.
Labour’s spokesperson on local government, Tangi Utikere, said Labour will not be supporting the Government’s legislation on a rates cap. At the same time he said the current increases are “unaffordable in the long term”. The logical conclusion to draw from that is the party should be supporting the legislation, especially as no alternative was offered.
Jordan Rivers, a former Shortland Street actor, who has a large social media following, is now working part-time in the Labour leader’s office and has been caught editing parts of a speech by Nicola Willis and posting them. I wonder where he got that idea from: CBS in America or maybe the BBC? According to Gerry Brownlee, he may well have breached Standing Orders.
On the recent Labour Party conference Bernard Hickey commented on the party’s position saying Labour had adopted a “low target strategy”. He then admitted their numbers didn’t add up. Really! He said restoring pay equity and meeting climate change obligations would cost “at least 15 billion dollars” before the party does anything else. And yet, says Bernard, the party refuses to lift taxes or debt.
DOES BERNARD SERIOUSLY BELIEVE THAT?
On the same topic, Tim Murphy from Newsroom noted that what Labour was not saying was equally telling. Hipkins in his speech made no mention of climate change, the Treaty, child poverty or law and order. He’s right. We are in the dark as to their real agendas on these policies.
Going back to the comment from Tangi Utikere saying the rate rises were unsustainable and not offering a solution, here’s the answer. As I write, the latest post from David Farrar on Kiwiblog has the headline – ‘Labour and the Greens want UNLIMITED rate increases’. Poor old Tangi, metaphorically and politically speaking, could end up on his own.
David has done the maths on Labour’s three free doctors visits.
More concerning is that it will lead to even larger delays in actually being able to see a GP when you are sick. This is because when there is no charge for a service, people will use it more. Labour says (I have asked for independent data to verify this) that on average NZers see a GP 2.5 times a year. Well if taxpayers pay for three visits a year, you can be sure everyone will go three times a year at least, as almost no one is in perfect health and never has a concern or niggle.
With 3.6 million adults that is an extra 1.8 million visits a year. That would be a 13 per cent increase in the number of GP visits a year. With 5,600 GPs, that would suggest an extra 720 GPs would be needed to just keep even.
labours_policy_will_cause_huge_delays_in_being_able_to_see_a_gp
David concludes the policy will only make things worse for the people most in need. Not so according to Labour who appear to have us believe the policy is eminently sound.
Hipkins struggles with maths as well. He says Labour winning all the Māori seats would be good for New Zealand, but David Farrar instantly debunks that claim. According to David it would be good for National. By his reckoning, based on the TU-Curia poll, the Right has 61 seats and the Left 59. TPM had a 4.4 per cent party vote. If TPM did not win any seats, those votes would be wasted, which would result in the Right having 63 seats and the Left 57 seats. Let’s hope Chippies’ wish comes true.
Finally to Willie Jackson who stands accused of bullying and anti-union behaviour. What? Surely not? Matt McCarten, remember him? Once one of Labour’s closest allies, has laid a complaint with the Speaker of the House alleging:
- an orchestrated sacking of the chair of the Manukau Urban Maori Authority plus a personal threat
- hand picking three new board members who are either Labour Party activists or from his own staff
- issuing a trespass notice on McCarten and union representatives in order to stop collective bargaining and coordinate intimidation of staff
- deploy top-tier law firms to silence the sacked chair with High Court action.
Labour were made aware of this on 5 September and did not respond. The Chief Whip said it was “not a matter for the party”.
I ask again, should we trust Labour? You decide.
