A baker’s dozen of what the election threw up.
1. National’s current leadership and a past leader bombed it.
2. Voters having more intelligence than them saved the day.
3. As a result we will be waiting weeks, if not months including negotiations, before the coalition starts work.
4. Opportunity novices will not make a skerrick of difference, no matter where they plant their posteriors.
5. Likewise the Greens, who can once again concentrate on their regular recreational habits and activities.
6. The Māori Party can live in Aotearoa but, when they wish (which is not often), attend the NZ parliament.
7. Labour has now got three years to dream up even more taxes.
8. Luxon is the obvious choice to replace Hipkins.
9. ACT has a chance to make more of a difference. Likewise NZ First.
10. ACT ran the best campaign.
11. A lesson past leaders need to learn is to butt out of current day politics.
12. This was democracy in action and not a rigging of the system as some are trying to portray.
13. A farewell to some notable MPs.
National’s leadership appears blind to the fact that, due to their stupidity and arrogance, they nearly lost (and possibly still lose) the election. I guess it was a mix of arrogance and pride that had them on the path to a near destructive result. I remind them of the old saying, ‘Pride goeth before a fall’. They took a big one in terms of their strategy and, as a result, so did we.
Voters using their split vote did two things. First, it increased National’s vote in a significant number of their electorates. Second, it increased the party vote for ACT and NZ First. So the call was heeded. Electorate vote National and party vote ACT or NZ First. That must not be construed as voters acting like sheep. It was a choice voters made, many having already come to the conclusion it was the safest pathway to a win. The 700,000-plus who party voted National wasted their vote and very nearly crowned Hipkins as prime minister.
The election final result is now on a knife edge thanks to National’s idiocy. We now have a long wait before the new coalition can get down to work. Had National heeded the message the polls were giving it, we would now be talking about a timetable for coalition negotiations.
The Opportunity novices have already flown into Wellington. I have to say the group photo on the steps of parliament doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. But there they were, like children attending their first birthday party, standing in front of the place that, in their words, they have come “to clean up”. I think their requiem might be ‘Opportunity gained, Opportunity lost’. A bunch of woke leftie pinkos. Their chances of achieving anything are slim to nothing.
The Greens hopes of being in government and sitting at the cabinet table appear to have once again gone up in a puff of smoke. They are used to both scenarios.
The Māori Party has proven a modicum of intelligence does exist within their ranks. A brilliant strategy of no party votes has worked. Not that it will make a difference. They successfully created an overhang by giving their party votes in large part to the Greens. Both parties live in a place they call Aotearoa that they hope one day will take over a country correctly named as New Zealand.
Yet another probable defeat for Labour. Taxpayers however will be saved from forking out for free visits to the doctor and empty buses and trains, ideas that went completely off the rails. Under a right wing coalition there will be a much better chance of getting back on track. Hipkins has derailed himself by accusing National of ‘rigging the system’, which is just a way of admitting he doesn’t understand how MMP is supposed to work. The mind boggles.
If Luxon gets rolled, and he should, he won’t have far to roll to find his next job. The chair is staring him in the face. It’s exactly like his and only a few steps away. Occupying the nearby seats are a bunch of like-minded liberals who would welcome him with open arms to his rightful home. It takes woke to know woke.
ACT finished the night at around 11 per cent. They might have hoped for more but it does give them a slightly stronger hand when it comes to negotiations with, hopefully, someone other than Luxon. Based on their policies, I would hope they would push for a smaller, more affordable government, scrapping the Climate Change Commission, scrapping Net Zero, cutting the Carbon Tax, backing small business and advocating for welfare being a hand up rather than a hand out. Seymour should put his hand up for minister of finance.
NZ First were not far behind ACT on around 10 per cent, but no doubt disappointed they did not receive more votes. Of their policies I would like them to promote the idea of lowering taxes on SMEs, promote mining and oil and gas exploration, abolish the Waitangi Tribunal, designate gangs as terrorist organisations, add more frontline police, remove the climate tax on fuel and, most importantly, take steps to abolish the Māori seats.
There is little doubt ACT ran the best campaign. Seymour’s stand ups were clear, concise and on point. Getting Paul Henry on board was a master stroke. As a public figure and a natural in the media he was used to full effect. He was everywhere, on billboards, holding public meetings and doing stand ups and media interviews. Which begs the question:, where were Stanford, Bishop, Brown and Mitchell, the big achievers for National this term? Nowhere to be seen. Maybe Luxon and Willis didn’t want them raining on their parade.
Past leaders like John Key and Helen Clark are both now well past their ‘useful political contribution’ date as evidenced in this election. Key should realise his other involvements and interests are where he could contribute in a much more positive manner. Clark, should concentrate her efforts on her campaign of lowering noise levels in her own neighbourhood.
Those on the left are trying to make out the tactical voting process was the equivalent of a rigging of the election. It was no such thing: it was democracy at work. The left don’t like the right doing it because it disadvantages them. National didn’t like it because it went against their ultimately failed nonsensical strategy. Here’s the irony: there was no criticism from the left or the media of the Māori Party coming up with the idea, doing it and being the first to implement it.
So it’s goodbye to the top-ranking liberals in National: Nicola Willis, Chris Bishop, Paul Goldsmith and Gerry Brownlee. Whether they will be missed and by how much and by whom is debatable. What isn’t debatable is these people, along with Luxon, took the party on a policy road that nearly became a dead end. National might have lost its way but the voters didn’t. Thankfully, due to their acumen, we are now sitting in a cul de sac for a few weeks hoping not to have to turn around and enter the dead end street. If all those wasted National party votes had gone elsewhere we’d be on the motorway with our destination clearly in sight.
