Well that was pretty meaningless with a hint of crisis management wasn’t it?
Jacinda Ardern unveils the coalition’s top 12 priorities they’ve agreed on
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, looking to see off criticism her coalition lacks direction, has delivered a speech in Auckland detailing 12 priorities that will drive the Government’s long-term direction.She says it’s the first of its kind since the introduction of MMP, and sets out “a comprehensive set of priorities across a wide range of economic, social and cultural areas and agreed to by all parties that are part of the Government”.
The fact Jacinda is having to host a ‘re-set’ speech after a mere 10 months is the destabilising thing here.
The new Government have been spooked by wall to wall right wing media criticism & are constantly reacting to the news cycle rather than setting it.
This was hollow with a wiff of desperation.
What exactly was announced?
- “Grow and share New Zealand’s prosperity more fairly”
- “Support thriving, sustainable regions”
- “Govern responsibly”
- “Transition to a clean, green carbon-neutral New Zealand”
- “Ensure everyone who is able to is earning, learning, caring or volunteering”
- “Support healthier, safer and more connected communities”
- “Ensure everyone has a warm, dry home”
- “Make New Zealand the best place in the world to be a child”
- “Deliver open, transformative and compassionate government”
- “Build closer partnerships with Māori”
- “Value who we are as a country”
- “Create an international reputation we can be proud of”
None of this means anything. Instead of shaking off the media narrative, the new Government have reacted to it and looked pretty shallow in response.
Remember how John Key would never buy into the media narrative, he’d look straight down the barrel of the camera and lie through his fucking teeth, even when he was busted on mass surveillance lies and collaborating with the SIS to falsely smear the Leader of the Opposition months before an election and the entire Dirty Politics scandal, he glided over that and never responded and Kiwi’s loved being lied to with confidence, Key never allowed the media to define him or his Leadership.
Here we have the new government chasing its tail rather than it wagging the dog.
What the new government needed to do was have this at the actual one year mark and sell their achievements and set new targets while putting out their head kickers into the media to push back on the false narrative.
Winston, Willie Jackson and the very excellent Michael Wood are brilliant at this kind of push back, having Jacinda rush to do this at the 10 month mark however just looks desperate.
10 moths in, this is still a Government who don’t seem to know how to play the game of power, they have about 12months to figure it out if they want to win 2020.
Unimpressive waffle and mutually-exclusive statements from Jacinda.
I can’t say I’m at all surprised. She is obviously way out of her depth and is more concerned with maintaining dysfunctional arrangements that with challenging them.
Therefore, we can expect continuing erosion of living standards and continuing degradation of the environment, perhaps at a slightly lower pace than if National were in power.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJKAQggSs9Q
Yes the speech was layers of meh, I ended up skim reading it after it became apparent it was waffle. Sadly we can conclude Jacinda is our Obama, all flowery talk but no structural change.
When in office, the Nats get to social engineering- selling assets, breaking unions and widening inequality.
Labour walks things back only the slightest step, so over time with successive governments we get further and further literally sold out, more unequal, selfish, polluted.
If we can blame Obama’s failure for Trump, what follows Ms Adern?
So basically “Strong and Stable”.
I wish they hadn’t done this. I’ve now gone from being a sceptical naysayer over this Governments ambitions to being downright worried.
Its like when your parents take the family out to the movies and then dinner at Pizza Hut to reassure you all that they aren’t about to get a divorce..
“Kiwi’s loved being lied to with confidence, Key never allowed the media to define him or his Leadership”
Sad, but true.
Curran got roasted for her very public “secret” meeting at a cafe in central Wellington. But Key got away with it time and time again. FFS, thats how he appointed his old school mare Ian Fletcher to head the GCSB!! If i remember correctly, only John Campbell on his old tv3 show, “Campbell Live”, tried to raise questions about Key’s shady dealings. The rest of the country simply didnt seem to care.
Why do we have dishonest politicians who are successful at their deceit? Because the public vote them in.
It would be tragic if that’s what it took for the Coalition govt to succeed.
I can’t see Jacinda Ardern telling the kind of outright lies that Key told.
The narrative has changed.
From the government has spent all the money and can do little more to Peters exercising power to stop Labour doing stuff.
Thus this what we agree on fluff (all they can do till they know if there is any money to spend in the 2019 budget).
At a price, as media is now demanding that the PM reassure them that they go through them to talk to the public.
This is the real Curran issue, fear of the development of any other means by which the government communicates directly to the people.
“None of this means anything. Instead of shaking off the media narrative, the new Government have reacted to it and looked pretty shallow in response.”
It is a relief to read what Martyn is realising here, but at the same time it is of course a great worry.
We have endless band-aid solutions, gap filling, slogans thrown around, feelgood talk, and good intentions, with meaningless talk, really, but no significant policy direction.
That is what has bothered me for months.
What topped it off for me today was this:
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/366634/nz-govt-extends-iraq-deployment-until-june-2019
Possums looking into the light of the Five Eyes, scared stiff to take a different stand, it seems.
Also Chris Faafoi on Q+A last night, being neither here nor there on public broadcasting. This government looks like an embarrassment to me, it is neither here nor there on many important issues, all to be discussed ‘by cabinet’ and the ‘coalition government’, bla, bla and bla.
A change kind of government would look different to what I witness, I feel depressed, this is not good.
This government is not new, it’s looking tarnished. Winston’s party looks like the voice of reason and Labour look like a bunch of well meaning incompetents. The white board summit over the weekend looks like a primary school camp. The reality is that the PM probably isn’t up to it. None of the caucus are either. Winston is; not that I voted for him. Even the Greens are distancing themselves from Labour’s comedy of errors.
It’s chill, can’t expect Jacinda to hit it out of the park every time. Banning letting fees, foreign buyers and reducing immigration number will make a lot of people happy.
Still waiting for those to eventuate though. Still, anything had to be better than National.
Yes instead, probably more immigrants to build houses for immigrants already here , why else do we really need more houses.
Really disappointed I thought this government was going to be a bit more innovative and progressive like signalling a move towards UBI as well.
Doom , doom, doom. What a load of nonsense from y,all .
count your blessings .we do have MMP , we do not have John Key .
Winston is Winston .. Hes alright . we have a wonderful young prime minister .Give her a chance ,Its only been one year and here you are the bunch of you . growl growl growl growl .
and there are loads of things in the pipeline being worked on .
and the Greens are doing some pretty good stuff as well .
maybe some folks should be learning how to give credit where credit is due instead of joining forces with those herald writers and their like ..Eh ?
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