We have published a number of articles on this site, notably from Lushington D Brady and more recently from Lionred about the government’s slap in the face to Australia by claiming they should treat the Chinese with more respect. If you hark back a few months, you may remember the respect China showed to Australia with the doctored picture below:
Nothing like respect, is there?
First Nanaia Mahuta offered herself up as a peace broker between the two nations, and more recently the illustrious Damien O’Connor publicly informed Australia that if they showed China more respect, they too could have a trade deal like ours.
What have these guys been smoking?
They obviously have no idea that they are completely out of step with the views of the New Zealand public, which has hardened considerably towards China in recent years. These days, many try very hard to avoid buying Chinese goods, because, in return for their plastic rubbish, we sell them all our good quality foodstuffs, leaving only the poorer quality produce for those at home to consume. Australians, it seems, are suddenly learning what the cost of the trade deals with China have been, and are now enjoying the best seafood, meat and quality wines produced by their own people that have never been available in Australia before. In addition, the British have scooped up the quality Australian wines that China decided not to accept, and are spending their lockdowns enjoying South Australian Shiraz in bountiful joy. Well done Australia for standing up to the dragon. It is time that somebody did.
But apparently our government would rather kowtow than stand up for our closest neighbour and strongest ally. Again, the majority of New Zealanders would stand by Australia in a heartbeat and tell the Chinese where to go. Trade is important to us, but if it means becoming a Chinese lapdog, well hell – there are other markets out there, as the Australians are proving.
Was it a condition of the new trade deal that our politicians publicly berate Australia? It is the only thing that makes sense, and yet, it was no less foolhardy if it were true. If it is true we should have said no. Some things are more important than a few million yuan.
I am unsure whether or not even the Chinese would be so brazen, but one thing is for sure. Slapping your closest neighbour in the face, particularly when that neighbour is much larger than you are, is not going to end well. This government has made a habit of publicly berating the Aussies, and our neighbours have, until now, acted with extremely good grace. It never pays to poke the bear too often. Australia has lots of friends in the world, and we would be better off not being on the wrong side of them, or their allies, who have also been our allies, but maybe for not much longer.
Let’s look at the politicians involved. We are talking about Nanaia Mahuta and Damien O’Connor (the latter described aptly as ‘not the brightest light’), and the picture starts to become clear. As a part-time resident of Damien’s constituency, I can tell you that his popularity has sunk to unprecedented lows, and there was strong speculation that he would lose his seat to Maureen Pugh (yes her, who actually does a lot for the region, unlike O’Connor who prefers to rest on his rather limited laurels and upset a lot of local people at the same time). With the strong swing to Labour, and the fact that coasters tend to vote Labour even to their own detriment, it didn’t happen, but clearly, his days are numbered as a local MP. His arrogance in trying to tell Australia how to deal with China is nothing new to coasters either. O’Connor is someone who has been promoted way beyond his level of competence and he has wasted no time in proving it.
Then there is the great Nanaia. Someone told me she had been to Oxford. Maybe that’s true, but it certainly wasn’t as a student; an afternoon bus tour is somewhat more likely. Nanaia is living proof that, if you hang around somewhere for long enough, eventually, you will get a top job. In his Guardian article, Morgan Godfery describes Mahuta as the ‘perfect diplomat’ and waxes lyrical about her strengths and powers:
In a room of dignitaries, New Zealand’s foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta is impossible to miss.
I completely agree with Godfery on this point, but probably not in the way he intended.
She is the first woman to sit in the country’s parliament wearing a moko kauae, an ancient Maori tattoo form. Koru patterns wrap around her chin, framing it in rich black inks, a visual statement that “I am Maori”.
So what? Why is that special? She is a long way from being the first Maori woman MP, but the moko is all that matters.
Some of the country’s leading foreign policy analysts doubt the new minister’s experience – as if Mahuta weren’t one of the longest serving MPs in parliament and one of the few ministers in the cabinet to serve in a previous government.
And it seems that her longevity in parliament is her only other achievement, along with the moko. Stunning.
Under the last National government the chief motivation for many, if not most, foreign policy stances and statements was maximum trade advantage. Tim Groser, the foreign minister under then-prime minister John Key, was himself a career trade negotiator.
That meant the New Zealand government would often hold fire on certain issues in certain countries, such as political freedoms in China, to preserve favourable trading arrangements. But under Mahuta’s ministership that commitment to saying and doing nearly nothing is changing.
Yes, it is. Now we berate our neighbours to protect our trade deals with China, and risk relationships that have lasted for centuries… but hey, who cares while they buy our milk and meat?
O’Connor and Mahuta have no idea of the quagmire that they have waded into. In claiming that ‘we have free and frank discussions with them’, O’Connor has made it clear he has no idea what he is doing. No one has free and frank discussions with the Chinese. They do as they are told or, like Australia, they find themselves in a diplomatic stoush. As for Mahuta, offering herself up as some kind of international negotiator, the naivety is breathtaking. The Chinese are probably laughing out loud, while Australia shakes its head in disbelief.
This government is the best demonstration ever of a party led by an international celebrity with no other members with real talent. Jacinda may be very popular, but she can’t do everything. She needs competent and experienced ministers who can do a good job with the portfolios they run. If O’Connor and Mahuta are anything to go by, New Zealand is in big trouble – with Australia, and eventually, with all of the countries we used to think of as friends. Our relationship with China, as its favourite little lapdog, is nothing to be proud of at all.
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