Prior to Judith as leader, I had argued as early as last Monday that it’s a Labour 50%+.
Post Judith as leader, there’s no way I can be so confident.
Judith ain’t no Muller. Judith is an ideological stormtrooper who has fantasised about power far longer than Muller ever had.
She is a dangerous politician whose mix of ruthlessness and whiplash wit has made her the doyenne of National supporters.
Prime Minister Judith Collins, the climate denier, the good friend of China, the ruthless dirty politics agent of chaos – her first 100 days would be a blitzkrieg against human rights, punitive welfare policy and environmental protections.
In desperation National have turned to a politician they can’t contain.
The greatest irony in all of this is that Muller was engulfed in trouble because he had a MAGA hat – Judith Collins however is closer to Trump’s style of revenge politics in a way Muller never was.
Jacinda has to step up if she wants a second term and she has to talk to Labour and Green supporters about what that second term can achieve without spooking the vast new electorate of National voters who will Party vote Labour for the first time ever out of respect for Jacinda’s management of the pandemic.
Luckily for Jacinda, that vast new chunk of National voters party voting Labour for the first time will recoil in disgust at Judith’s antics over the next 9 weeks.
On Saturday 25th the Alternative Aotearoa Left wing election hui to demand progressive change in the first 100 days will be held and live streamed on the Daily Blog.
The Green Party and Labour Party need to ensure they are there so that they can go to the Election with some genuinely populist progressive policy that will ensure Labour and Green voters rally and stop Judith Collins from becoming Prime Minister.
We didn’t survive a volcano, a terrorist and a virus to be rewarded with Judith Bloody Collins as Prime Minister!
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I agree, Judith has the ability to get National to 40%. I really think that the left is underestimating how conservative middle NZ is. And how petty and vindictive they can be.
Adern is a piss weak leader but Collins cannot unseat her this election.
Labour won’t get 50% of the vote but will get 50% of the residual vote if we are lucky enough for the greens to be booted from parliament.
I would point out however the irony of you calling Collins an ideologue. Pot, kettle?
The usual charming language from a National supporter. Learned it from Donald,or Cameron did you?
…’ We didn’t survive a volcano, a terrorist and a virus to be rewarded with Judith Bloody Collins as Prime Minister!’…
———————————————-
Oh yes we did , – not that I think Collins has a chance, but it will not be the election of the Nats in September in Collins mind but rather her consolidation of power during the first and second terms of Aderns govt. This is when you will see her make her first tentative strikes.
And she will keep on landing heavy blows at each and every weakness that presents itself and she will be deadly in her precision.
Make no mistake,… she will give the complacent Left no chance to rest. She is a predatorial Great white shark zeroing in on her kill of seal meat and blubber, and she will rarely miss her mark.
I doubt she will make PM against Adern, but when and if Adern leaves that position, Collins will steam roller anyone of lesser talent.
Be prepared.
Judith Collins however is closer to Trump’s style of revenge politics in a way Muller never was.
Yep – It’s a She-Trump.
We didn’t survive a volcano, a terrorist and a virus to be rewarded with Judith Bloody Collins as Prime Minister!
I so hope not.
Get real Kheala and all you intolerant lefties (ironic how the liberal lefties are the most intolerant!!!!). Collins is nothing like Trump. And you all know it, but you’re just shit scared now that Jacinda won’t get the free run you want her to have. Because you know she is a piss poor leader! Starting with ‘I will take a huge salary cut to show I will suffer like you!”….Well, that lousy 20% cut has yet to happen…what a fine leader that is!!!!
Herman you appear to be intolerant of “lefities” if you have an understanding of what politics of the left is about.
and what is leadership about in your opinion.
Collins and Trumpy – Death Merchants both.
(Get ready folks, if she were to get in, Covid 19 arrives with her.)
That is such a falsehood! Our PM has publicly stated that her salary has not been reduced as she has requested check it out on news. Get your facts right before you slander our PM!
Yeah, so it is:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/121843524/prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-still-hasnt-had-a-pay-cut–and-shes-frustrated
It’s a crafty move by national and its all bought and paid for, post farm gate minions.
Tank the value of wool to below a dollar a kg while heading into a general election where Labour’s in power and agriculture is our primary industry and traditionally parasitised by national.
A classic move.
Every weather beaten old sheep cocky from the Cape to Bluff will be muddy bumper to muddy bumper to vote for horrible, vicious collins. Trump was elected on the strength of his rhetoric. He came across as a hater and a racist misogynist who claimed he rolled up his sleeves and got shit done.
Sound familiar?
We should be very concerned.
It’s my belief that national infected labour with AO/NZ’s own tailormade version of neoliberalism so manipulating and exploiting sheep, and other farmers would have been a simple matter. Then, all national have to do is to take the money, win the election and maintain control of our primary industry to bleed it out for ever and ever and ever.
It does truly boggle my mind to see that I seem to be the only one who thinks the above’s vitally relevant.
Labour? Go and get the farmer? Guarantee that farmers will retain an ongoing financial interest in their product from the farm to the supermarkets and stores both here and off-shore.
Total transparency in ever single financial transaction from a dollar to a billion and beyond.
( I bet you Good Ol Boys just did a little bit of poo then? Am I correct? )
Regulate our four major banksters so tightly that the dirty fuckers squeak when they walk and run through the bankster Ombudsman’s office like prune juice to enable a total bankster clean out then investigate every single significant transaction both here and offshore spanning at least the last 40 years. ( I’d prefer the last 100 years.)
Significant tax incentives for farmers to return to sustainable and regenerative agriculture and ban the use of glyphosate immediately.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/country/421075/farmers-dig-deep-at-regenerative-agriculture-workshops
And
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/country/416143/regenerative-agriculture-how-a-dairy-farmer-learned-to-trust-his-instincts
And one or two more things…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyphosate
Supply free WIFI to every farmer in AO/NZ effective immediately.
If the above matters were attended to it’d be goodbye Natzo’s for ever.
If not? And collins gets in? It’ll be a fucking horror story that’ll never stop giving.
Yes Martyn,
Jacinda must use ‘climate change’ to destroy Crusher Collins as Collins has record of rubbishing climate change as a “joke”.
Hit Judith Collins in her ‘weakest spot’ Jacinda, as the world knows how you said in your pre-election speech that you was strong on fighting ‘climate change’, when you strongly voiced your feelings using your historic words, “climate change is our generations nucleus moment” as we felt your pain that day as it was very powerful message that got you elected.
This is your evidence that Collins doesn’t believe in climate change.
EVIDENCE THAT JUDITH COLLINS DOESN’T BELIEVE IN CLIMATE CHANGE.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/122137025/five-things-judith-collins-has-said-on-climate-change
Five negative things Judith Collins said about climate change.
1 On the School Strike 4 Climate NZ protests: “They are very earnest and very truthful in what they believe. I don’t know what they’re going to do in 12 years’ time when the world has not actually led to a mass extinction of humans. I’m sure that they will have found something else… Another generation will come. Every generation has its thing.”
CONTEXT: Collins was speaking to the AM Show on the morning of the September 2019 climate march.
It’s unclear who Collins is referring to when she speaks of the belief humans would be dying in vast numbers by 2031. But the comment appears to be confusing or conflating several scientific findings: that the world had 12 years to reduce emissions before it becomes impossible (or at least really challenging) to meet the Paris Agreement goals; that catastrophic climate change increases the risk that plants and animals will go extinct in the coming decades; and that global warming will make life increasingly uncomfortable for human societies, as health-threatening heatwaves, famines and infectious disease outbreaks arrive more frequently as the century progresses.
2 On the 1.5 degrees Celsius Paris Agreement target: “The world will not end if we pass 1.5 degrees Celsius (1.5C) of warming. The children marching in the street with signs saying ‘You will die of old age, I will die of climate change’ have been needlessly exploited by an increasingly fanatical Green lobby…
“Scientists expect the impacts of 1.5C warming to be lower than 2C. But the same statement is true for the difference between 2.0C and 2.5C… The costs of global warming are real, but there is no indication they are insurmountable. And there is nothing magically different that happens at 1.5C that doesn’t happen at 1.6C.
“Assuming the IPCC models reflect the relationship between carbon dioxide and global warming, there is almost no chance the world will avoid 1.5C.”
CONTEXT: A few weeks after the September school strike, Collins outlined her thoughts about climate change more fully on Facebook, prompting accusations that National had its own climate crisis.
Although it’s true that the world won’t end after 1.5C of warming and that the challenges rise as the mercury does, it’s wrong to imply that temperature thresholds don’t mean anything. Some aspects of the climate system have tipping points, beyond which researchers believe the effects of heating get dramatically worse.
As an example, an award-winning team of Kiwi scientists concluded, if we don’t limit global warming to 1.5C, the melting of Antarctic ice and the inundation of coastal cities may be supercharged. Worldwide, hundreds of peer-reviewed studies helped the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reach the conclusion that a 2C warmer world will be a much more unpleasant and costly place to live in than a 1.5C one.
It’s also misleading to suggest society can easily absorb the estimated $20 trillion cost of exceeding our 1.5C target by half a degree.
Collins’ questioning of the link between carbon dioxide and global warming veers into climate denial territory. The link was first established 150 years ago. Studies show climate models have been remarkably accurate over recent decades – though they’re not perfect, and scientists are working to improve them all the time.
3 New National Party leader Judith Collins plans to make major changes to the Zero Carbon Act if she wins the election.
On Covid-19’s impact on climate action: “As a nation we will be changed… We will wonder why the government that talked so much about housing development decided to add climate change into RMA decisions by local councils and we will wonder how that could happen without adequate public consultation. We will be ready to embrace infrastructure on a scale not seen since the ‘Think Big’ days.
“And when anyone mentions Greta, we will ask: Who?”
CONTEXT: Collins wrote this op-ed for the Sunday Star-Times, 11 days after the country went into lockdown. She mentions the Resource Management Act amendment bill, which allows resource consents for emissions-intensive projects (such as coal mines) to be refused. Hundreds of submissions were received during public consultation last year. Collins also refers to Greta Thunberg, the 17-year-old activist who sparked the global School Strike For Climate movement, which moved online after the pandemic outbreak.
4 On New Zealand’s emissions: “[The country] contributes around 0.03 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions. So instead of flagellating ourselves and you know, putting a hair shirt on – we should be saying: Who are these big emitters?
“I’d rather have New Zealand producing milk and dairy products and meat and wool than countries that don’t take any notice at all… I just think that the Greens and Labour and New Zealand First have been happy to go and throw New Zealand farmers under a bus.”
CONTEXT: Collins, speaking to radio show The Country last year, had her figures wrong. The country’s actual contribution – 0.17 per cent of global emissions in 2014 – is more than five times larger than the stat given. New Zealanders’ per-person emissions are some of the highest in the world, though our emissions profile is unusual – methane contributes comparatively more to our footprint. Our household emissions also continue to rise.
A few months after this interview, the coalition Government announced a partnership with farmers to measure and price on-farm emissions. The He Waka Eke Noa programme has been making steady progress.
5 On the Zero Carbon Bill: “What we need to do is to amend this [Zero Carbon] Bill once it becomes an Act and once we’re in Government… We will be changing these: the target for biogenic methane reduction to be recommended by the independent Climate Change Commission. Otherwise, why bother having it?
“We will have stronger provisions that consider the level of action being taken by other countries and allow targets to be adjusted to ensure we remain in step with the international community. The bill that we will be putting through will ensure that the commission considers the economic impacts when providing advice on targets and emissions reductions.
“The bill will also see the emissions budgets being split between biogenic methane and carbon dioxide, as recommended by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. And the bill will also include a greater commitment to investment and innovation and research and development to find solutions for reducing emissions.”
CONTEXT: During the third reading of the Bill in 2019, Collins outlined her concerns and changes the National Party would make, should it be elected this year.
The Zero Carbon Act contains split targets, requiring the country to cut biogenic methane by 10 per cent by 2030 and between 24 and 47 per cent by 2050. All other greenhouses gases must be net zero by 2050. Both targets were set by the Government, but Climate Change Minister James Shaw has since asked the Climate Change Commission for advice on the methane target.
To get us there, the legislation requires a series of emissions budgets to be set, the first by Government, with all future budgets set by the independent Climate Change Commission. Economic analysis of the impacts of different ways of cutting emissions – and the pace of emissions cuts – is part of the commission’s job description.
Full article from Stuff below.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/122137025/five-things-judith-collins-has-said-on-climate-change
The IPCC is always well behind what is actually happening as each new report shows.
They have not been able to push through decisive language on agriculture, not because the science is a problem but the writing committees are watering down the facts as seen by most climate scientists.
The methane release from melting permafrost is not quantified so hardly mentioned yet many see this has probably pushed the warming beyond the point of runaway warming.
Ice at both poles is melting faster each year and the Antarctic ice shelf melting has increased well beyond predictions of two years ago. The rate of increased melting is accelerating.
Deforestation and increased domestic animal numbers is suicidal yet features little in NZ govt policies.
Here’s that link again: Alternative Aotearoa Political Left Election 2020 Conference
Saturday 25th July – That’s Saturday week, just over a week away.
This is a one day seminar in Wellington. Attendance is free.
The Green Party and Labour Party need to ensure they are there so that they can go to the Election with some genuinely populist progressive policy that will ensure Labour and Green voters rally and stop Judith Collins from becoming Prime Minister.
Judith is only a threat if you let her be and you go on defense. Judith is under all the bluster and bravado a very fragile person, who had a breakdown in 2014 and had to take stress leave to recover. Just imagine the hype if Jacinda had to. Her bravado is, as with Trump to hide her weaknesses. She uses the same strategies as Trump, demean your opponent, get them on the defense and explaining is losing. The only way to counter this is to keep the focus on her and her teams weaknesses. The huge mess she and her team left labor to fix. Remember Judith hand in the meth testing scandal, Oravida etc etc etc etc, Brownlee’s in the botch repairs in Christchurch, Insurance scam etc etc lack of progress with the rebuild etc etc and the list go on. Put the focus on their lack of policy, their inability to progress Christchurch, run down of Health, Education, expose their press interviews and draw attention to the lack of facts and policy. and eagerness to criticize Labor whilst they propose no solutions. If you expose this void people will question their ability to do anything meaningful. This must be done relentless, endless, 24/7, every hour, every day. It takes at least 21 repetitions before it get stuck in peoples memories.
National did nothing for nine years and and their new plan for 2020 – do nothing, prop up their business and farmer mates, keep making Kiwi’s tenants in their own country with their housing ponzi.
My compliments to Duncan when started shining the light on their lack of political ingenuity in his interview with Brownlee. The old geyser was not to happy on the line of questioning. But it seems most of the MSM pundits went “ape” and are now like rabbits staring into the headlights of a car. Beware you could get run over. The best way to win this battle focus on the needs of the people, poverty, health, jobs etc, list and emphasize Labor’s achievements the past 3 years and keep the focus on Nationals weaknesses. Compassion and kindness will overpower bluster and fear as people always prefer the positive over negative . Cowering with stories like this, common Kiwi’s are stronger than this. A hint of weakness is as good as surrendering and the battle will be lost before it started. Get over the JDS and put Judith where she belong, the history books of failures.
Very worthwhile thoughts there Pierre. Appreciated.
A couple of weeks ago on a TVNZ current affairs program Judith Collins was asked about Jacinda Ardern.
In her reply Collins resorted to that typical green-eyed monster that jealousy or anyone with a jealous bone in their/her body commented that “Jacinda is aging….”.
Collins is something we as a population really do not want as our representative on the world stage. She is seriously a bad person with not a nice bone in her body. She has aged disgracefully and it is reflected in her actions, words and behaivour.
Now she is leader of the National party I wonder how much contact she will be having with Cameron Slater in order to run down anyone and everyone albeit even a person employed within parliamentary grounds as an office worker; for political gain???!!!!
Collins has too much of a dark track record in her wake to be meriting of a vote at the election.
But because she can be very vindictive I dread to imagine who she will be hellbent on ruining just for the purpose of pure nastiness and evil. Yes to me Judith Collins is a manifestation of what is bad and dangerous as a National Party MP.
Lets hope NZers and especially those undecided voters are wise enough on election day to not trust someone who will be nice to you for the purpose of votes and stab you either at the front(or in the back)once the votes have been counted.
I have already decided whom I will be voting for. Judith Collins is NOT worthy or credible enough to be NZs leader.
Furthermore, Labor already snookered Nationals dirty politics with the appointment of The QC investigation into the leaking of the patient information. Snookered their “homeless man” scam. And how upset was the MSM and Judith that Jacinda was ignoring her appointment and held a press conference the next morning over shadowing any attention National had hoped for. 3-0 in Labors favor I would say. Can National achieve anything without dirty politics, doesn’t look like it.
Genuinely embedded in most of Nationals DNA is they think it’s still 1985 and 2008 combined. It’s evident in the way they talk and their ideas. Covid19 is a trivial sideshow, and pretty soon we’ll go back to the old ways. It’ll just go away. You get like this when you reach a certain age, like it’s leader where you stop taking notice of developments and cling to what you know.
Judy thinks woke is Cindy not kissing her rump and acknowledging the umpteenth Nat leader this year in fawning adulation. Does she know about Tik Tok yet? What will she make of that?
These charlatans think they know it all, but they clearly don’t. I expect these masters of the universe will be lots of fire and brimstone in the coming weeks, not withstanding more dirty politics and more “resignations” given they’re are so behind in the of preparation in this campaign and behind the times in general but light on relevant 2020 substance.
Labour I conclude are far more with the times.
You have it totally wrong.
You are projecting your image of Judith before she got shafted by Key.
She is not 10% of the monster she was then and Covid-19 would have damaged her mind further.
My pick is she will not last as long as Muller did, unless of course she is forced to because there is no other option.
I don’t think you have realised yet just how much people, in my experience mainly women, have been mentally destroyed by Covid-19.
Judith is not the shoulder-of-wilderbeest devouring beast she once was.
She made a big mistake taking this on and will suffer the consequences.
Judith’s first 2 days, given the circumstances have been a 9.5/10. In a heartbeat the protest vote to ACT went (refer how salty Seymour has been) and the shoring up on the rump has been established. Interestingly all the 40+ females I know who had a disliking of bridges and an indifference to Muller have expressed support for Judith. This is an important dynamic of the middle who I get the feeling will start to drift back to National. The younger housewife and the office worker will be more difficult to convince and this will be against policy and performance.
Make no mistake this is game on and in Collins you have a candidate that has been prepping for this religiously over the past 20 years. There will be limited mistakes, if any. Kindness and yabbering on (but not doing anything about) won’t get Jacinda across the line.
I don’t rate Jacinda however she has the opportunity to show what you all believe to be true if she can go toe to toe with Collins. And if she does I’ll change my opinion about her.
The Darth Vader analogy was the wrong one Bomber. This reminds me more of the MCU where Thanos decides “fine I’ll do it myself”. For your sakes you better hope it’s more EndGame instead of Infinity War. Judith as leader of National was always “inevitable”.
Anyway how fun are the next 8 weeks going to be.
if she can go toe to toe with Collins.
Seriously funny to think about it – Would be like Hasbeen Rodney Hide (Hasbeen Judith) on Dancing with the real stars, …. clunk, clunk, clop! clunk, clunk, drop!
Vs Jacinda giving masterclass in the salsa.
You sound like Team NZ in 2003 where they were positive they were going to trash Alinghi.
I’m quietly confident the debates will be a bloodbath as Judith can go after Jacinda in a way a male politician can’t
Labour have a secret weapon – it’s called Gerry Brownlee.
Having a National-led government is funny though; better than any television series I’ve ever seen. A whole lot of cultish types without capacity for self-analysis is the basis of the best comedy – in life and on tv.
Haaang on!!! What the hell happened to cock sure Bomber?????
Relaaax, Martyn, Jacinda has you covered. Jacinda’s govt has an amazing track record for getting shit done. Untouchable there. So you are safe as houses.
Oh really Judith is nothing more than an old woman well past per prime that believes drawing inspiration from the past will create the a similar outcome in a 2020 time line —there is zero chance of her antics getting the Nats over the line –its almost laughable they really think they can win.
Examples to come
1: A rehash of “think big” –I can write off her announcement already as a clone of that
2: A rehash of Don Brash’s “Orewa ”
In a parallel universe if the Nats won 2020 Judith would be Aunt Lydia’ of a Gilead type totalitarian society that subjects some of its people into slavery.
Remember , Collins never crushed a single boy racers car despite all the tough talk. It was Anne Tolley who actually managed one or possibly two but that was it.
Collins is all bullshit and bravado. Any fool can see through her .Every portfolio she has touched has been a disaster and her tenure as leader of the opposition will be the same.
Remember,under her watch,the poorly maintained and poorly marked aviation fuel pipeline at Ruakaka that a digger hit whilst dragging out a swamp Kauri on a farm that mysteriously nobody could find the owner to ? Funny that ,and guess who had links to the exporting of Northland swap Kauri to China?
She’s a fake and i don’t think the majority of the electorate are buying it for one second.
Muldoon, who she seems to be modelling herself on,no doubt had his faults, but he was at least in some way a visionary of sorts.
Collins is about as one dimensional as you can get and is definitely is not a visionary. She will appeal to the blokey thickos and the diehard Nats but that’s it . Most Kiwis have moved on from her Jurassic type style of politics. 25 % max. on election day.
Older people vote and many people I know from various walks of life do not like the way Jacinda acts like a school teacher in control of a naughty class . This is what caused Helen Clark’s downfall. Undoubtedly Jacinda has handled the crisis situations well but the test now is where to from here and I am not sure based on the day to day running of the country they have the team to lead especially if they are shackled to keeping the Greens happy.
NZF are starting to show they are not team players and hopefully voters will see them as the self serving party they are.
Well Trev older people need to stop being so selfish, its not all about them its about all of us. Who has the highest home ownership numbers in our country? who is getting a pension? and who has access to free aged care? Our elderly are amongst the best of in the world. Its high time they started thinking about the future and our next generation who may never have or get any of the above .
Trevor Sennitt,
So who are these people that claim Jacinda acts like a school teacher in control of a naughty class and they don’t like it? I’ve never heard that fairytale before but then again, I don’t rub shoulders with people who have been saying the following about Jacinda for the last 34 months.
1) She looks like a horse.
2) She has no leadership skills.
3) She’s stupid.
4) She is best suited to working in the takeaway she worked in as a young teenage girl.
5) When her grandmother died 3 days before the election in 2017 online trolls said she was the sort of lowlife who would use the death to get sympathy votes.
6) Her daughter is a bastard.
7) The main reason she had a baby was to get votes from mothers and older people.
8) Her coalition government won’t last for 3 months, then 6 months, then a year, then the full term.
9) She’s a disgrace for not being married.
10) She’s an airhead
etc etc etc.
We all know that National and their trolls feel they were robbed of their entitlement to govern in 2017. They feel frustrated, bitter, and angry at Ardern. How dare she be PM. Only National are suitable to govern. They despise Ardern like no other. It will be these same misogynistic shitheels who claim Jacinda acts like a school teacher in control of a naughty class….or is it just the way you see her Trevor? When exactly did she conduct herself in that manner? When the Christchurch massacre unfolded? if so, how dare she behave like a leader on such an occasion…or was it when White Island erupted killing numerous people? How about when the Covid-19 pandemic hit NZ and threatened to kill thousands of New Zealanders? The cheek of it for her to treat such matters so seriously.
Truth is, I felt she went out of her way during the lockdown PC’s to highlight the positive. She repeatedly praised the team of 5 million despite many out there incessantly bleating that the lockdown was not needed and was just a PM on a power trip or all those that said fark you to the rules and carried on as normal during the lockdown? She could have chastised them like a teacher dealing with naughty children but instead chose to focus on the positive everyone else was doing. Me thinks you have again shown your bias Trevor in a way that does not reflect well on you personally.
If you care to look at my comments I have not used any of those personnal barbs in fact I notice you seem to bring them up more than most. It would be above my pay grade to work out why.
As I am retired my life will carry on much the same which ever party is in power but I am concerned for those coming up behind and wish to see them have the chance to get ahead like I did and I do not see that oppetunity under this government. They have made some good moves in the last 3 years up have done little to help the small businesses that employ about a third of workers . Their delay in sorting out business rent relief and visa changes are the latest problems not fixed
Trevor,
It’s been my life experience that when a person says something akin to “everyone I talk to says bla bla bla is a poor leader”…what they are actually saying is “I believe bla bla bla is a poor leader”…..and the everyone I know BS is just a lame attempt to add value to their perspective.
As for rent business rent relief. You are aware of the considerable amount of relief the Government has put in place to support business? Tax relief, business loans, wage subsidy etc etc. You are aware that business is not the only group doing it hard at the moment? You’re aware that this Government has been just a wee bit busy in recent months? You’ll also be aware that if a person views a Government with contempt, it matters not what they do, the anti brigade will still find reason to point their fingers and judge? You’re aware that there is widespread belief around NZ that had National been in power when the pandemic arrived, there would have been no wage subsidy and no support in so many areas. If we’d had a lockdown under National it would have lasted 5 minutes as business is their paramount concern. Had this been the case, NZ wouldn’t be talking about business rent relief. We would be in meltdown as a country grieving the diabolical number of Covid-19 related deaths of other kiwis.
You talk about judgments being above your pay grade yet you critique the Government on business rent relief. Are you privy to all the information the Government has that has so far prevented that business rent relief? Do you think part of a Governments role is to balance everything when making decisions? Do you accept there may be factors involved that you’re not aware of? You’re aware there are many unscrupulous people out there who have held businesses to ransom with rent. Some have a legitimate reason while others are attempting to force the Government into paying rent relief which will benefit them even more than businesses. Whatever the reason is behind a delay in business rent relief, we know one thing for certain. It won’t be due to Government indifference. Much of the NZ population knows exactly what Government indifference looks like. They had 9 long years of witnessing it with housing, health, child poverty, suicide, lack of investment in infrastructure etc etc etc etc etc etc etc and then farcically calling that a “rock star economy”
After those nine years there were still over 40% of voters who voted for National. They did not get everything right in that period but just under half of voters were happy.
I am from Chch and witnessed how National supported businesses and workers over the period following the earthquake. National increased their vote in the next election so it showed a large degree of satisfaction. There were miss steps but just as with the virus there was no rule book to follow.
I think the up coming election is going to be interesting for those that are interested but it needs to be remembered for most day to day survival is all consuming and if they vote the decision is made on the day.
Trevor – it is a coalition and decisions are made behind closed doors.
Well Trev older people need to stop being so selfish, its not all about them its about all of us. Who has the highest home ownership rates in our country? who is getting a pension? what benefit cost us as a country the most ?and who has access to free aged care.? Our elderly are amongst the best of in the world. Its high time they started thinking about the future and our next generation who may never have or get any of the above .
I don’t know anyone personally who calls Ms Collins Crusher, I only ever hear it used by media/PR/news folk. My friends and I have other descriptions we use.
This election will be the Covid election.
Where the other political parties stand on the government’s widely popular and internationally acclaimed strategy of ‘Elimination’ will what this campaign will be fought over.
Judith Collins has already hit a bum note with her tone deaf $31 billion ‘more motorways’ launch.
What weird alternative universe is Judith Collins inhabiting?
It is almost like, that for Judith Collins the global pandemic hasn’t happened at all,
The sacking of Amy Adams and the dissolution of the Covid-19 Recvery portfolio, created by Todd Muller in response to the crisis, and held by Amy Adams was the reason Adams gave for her resignation. Adams told RNZ that if Collins had allowed her to keep the Covid-19 portfolio she would have stayed on.
The short life and death of National’s Covid portfolio and Collins disinterest in making any rational science based response to the corona virus pathogen, signals the end of the opposition’s bi-partisan support for the government strategy of ‘elimination’.
The departure of Amy Adams and the dissolution of the National Party’s Covid-19 Recovery porfolio created by Todd Muller and held by Adams and the reason for Adam’s resignation, was a watershed moment for the National Party.
Adams told RNZ that if Collins had allowed her to keep the Covid-19 portfolio she would have stayed on.
In downplaying the virus, Judith Collins is following the same tragic path travelled by overseas right wing leaders, Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro,
The ‘elimination’ strategy followed by New Zealand is now being proposes as the answer to the runaway infection in Victoria.
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/world/scientists-urge-stricter-lockdowns-in-victoria/ar-BB16SPI5
The state’s current outbreak has led to experts calling on the Australian government for an elimination, rather than suppression, strategy.
Dr Bowtell, an adjunct professor at the University of NSW, told ABC Radio that Australia was on the verge of eliminating the disease.
“We’ve got the evidence in front of our eyes,” he said….
“We know from New Zealand and Taiwan that elimination of community transmission is achievable in island jurisdictions, both having no reported community transmission for over two months as of 10 July,” they wrote.
“The advantage of elimination is that despite international border closures or strict quarantine, citizens can go about life with a near-normal functioning of their society and economy.
“Living in a state or country that has achieved elimination is a far better option than suppression in the short- to medium-term, compared with the high likelihood of recurrent outbreaks precipitating recurrent lockdowns with attendant social and economic disruption.”
The New Zealand National Party response to the Covid-19 pandemic, in particular National’s refusal to support ‘elimination’, will mark the downfall of Judith Collins and the National Party at this election..
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