So the political attack line now is that Kiri’s downfall is a failure of Chippy’s leadership, that he brought her back too soon and her meltdown is his poor leadership.
What a load of bullshit!
Kiri begged to get back into Cabinet, she assured the Prime Minister and his advisors that she was ready, match fit, couldn’t tolerate being benched, wanted to get back in the fray.
She pushed to be included, it wasn’t the Leadership!
They took her at her word, Chris Hipkins gave her the benefit of the doubt, the way he gave Stuart Nash the benefit of the doubt, the way he gave Meka the benefit of the doubt and the way he gave Michael Wood the benefit of the doubt.
That isn’t poor leadership, that isn’t a filature to among, that was Chippy giving people the benefit of the doubt.
He’s not an arsehole, and gives people the benefit of the doubt, until they prove him wrong.
That’s a generous nature, that isn’t a failure of character!
And why wouldn’t you take Kiri at her word?
She was brilliant last week when she fronted Labour’s youth crime policy. She was on fire when she appeared before Select Committee, she was a Cabinet Minister who was performing and excelling after Chippy gave her the benefit of the doubt.
Her car crash while over the limit and her mouthing off at the cops is on her, not Chippy and she would be the first to acknowledge that!
Her mental health issues explain her erratic behaviour and poor decision making, and for that we should be generous of spirit and forgiving towards, but to use her mental health issues as a reason to blame Chippy is nothing more than political!
We should collectively wish Kiri well and hope she heals, but this election should be fought over policies that impact us all collectively, not some cheap psychological evaluation of Chippy’s leadership style!
Chippy tries to see the best in people and gives them the benefit of the doubt, that’s not a character flaw, that’s being a decent human being!
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Whats that saying… A fish rots from the head.
How many ministers have gone this year? I ve lost count.
Allan got pissed then got in her car and drove – bloody idiot. I can’t but help to think the mental health issues are being used as an unchallenged smokescreen to deflect from this horrendous decision.
As for Hipkins – he simply lacks a bullshit detector that both Clark and Key had. In addition his advisors clearly aren’t in the same league as an Eagleson or H2. The feckless smell blood and the hunt will now be on for the next scandal. I’m picking the dumb as dishwater Education Minister to be the next green bottle hanging on the wall.
In the interim Te Reo just has to find Biden’s bunker and hideout for the next 6 weeks.
So Key had a bullshit detector when he anointed Jamie Lee Ross as a star Frank? Or perhaps Jamie Lee’s behaviour wasn’t seen as bullshit and was quite ok.
Yawn – if Ross stepped out of line do you think Key would have given him a second chance. Shane Ardern says hi.
Get your fan girl knickers off Wheely.
Key gave Judith a second chance (f knows why) so don’t be so sure.
You didn’t happen to be at the anti co governance drivel session the other day? They are big on insisting pants need to come off too.
Even though I am anti alcohol I know there is a difference between being pissed & having a drink. It is reported that no charges in relation to alcohol use are happening which means any alcohol use by her was small. In the bad old days (the 1980s) when I did drink I was stopped & blew into the bag, evidently I must have been under the limit as I was allowed to drive home, I know of lots of accidents where those who caused it were not required to return to the police station so the obvious question is did the hard blue line decide to control an uppity cabinet minister just because they could?
You have an interesting point. Why was she taken to the station and what was ‘resisting arrest’. Did she have to be handcuffed? You are quite right to ask why was she arrested if only an infringement and not going to be prosecuted for that? Was it because she was distressed? Hmm mmm yes, why did she have to go to the station for a minor car crash? A truck wiped out my car once and neither of us had to go to the station, and another time a bus ran into the back of my car and again, no need to go to the station. I would say it is not common to have to go to the station after a car accident. Maybe the hospital if they were concerned for her. Was she speeding? Do you have to go to the station for that?
Frank the Tank. So Key had a bullshit detector when he personally authorised the SAS to carry out a revenge raid by night on subsistence peasant women and children in the Tirigan Valley up in the Hindu Kush, did he ? So Key had a bullshit detector when he dubbed Nicky Hager a conspiracy theorist for his documentation of the Nat’s Dirty Politics, resulting in Hager, rightly getting a big payout and never ever being sued for anything he’s written ? So Key had a big bullshit detector when he thought that his serial hair pulling was a fun and games thing for the wee waitress who dreaded the very sight of him ? Man couldn’t even smell his own feet.
Key had a bullshit detector when he said we were not a tax haven.
No, Chippy has an awfully barren cupboard, so talentless he has to risk it with these MP’s who have a grain of ability. And he’s no arsehole, he’s actually quite likeable.
Allan was always going to go down in flames, her personality and track record screamed it would. Lawyers generally tend to mistakenly think they have a superior intellect and that and their knowledge of the law puts them above it. Add to that her confrontational manner, witnessed by so many ministries staffers, that an unplanned meeting with a cop one night with a few under her belt was never going to end well.
She should have been sacked on the spot for her RNZ bullying, that looked particularly ugly and textbook nepotistic, but that was made to go away and that is on Chippy. But ultimately it was her loose cannon personality that sunk her, and sadly and for the sake of political expediency, the narrative will wrongly say she had to go out publicly as she was mentally unfit to hold down a job. And that lie I think is the biggest tragedy of the Kiri Allan story!
X-ray Every cloud has a silver lining. Regardless of the mental health apologia’s relevance, Kiri’s big tumble has highlighted mental health issues, and that’s all for the good when it’s an issue that has impacted majorly during and since covid, exacerbated now with school absenteeism, the cost-of-living crisis, mortgagee challenges, rural suicides, homelessness, and the sad sexualisation of young school children. Labour and National have both underfunded our national health service, which in itself also generates further mental health pressures for its staff and “ customers” alike. Kiri’s very public downfall provides good opportunity to inject more needed funding and and health professionals into the mental health arena. Somebody needs to seize the day here, and say, “ Let’s do this.”
No argument that mental health services are understaffed, (difficult to address quickly), under resourced and woefully inadequate. Seems to me money needs to go directly to the private sector to fill these shortfalls. Exactly like physical health shortfalls, patients should be referred to and funded, to the private sector, at least until the public system sorts its act out, if ever. 1.8 billion dollars into mental health care have, apparently, led to less beds! How bad is that? How incompetent?
But to use mental health as the most convenient excuse to save this government at the expense of Kiri Allan is appalling. She just blew it. That’s it!
Your post reads like the last National government under funding and the Jamie Lee Ross/ Todd Muller mental health saga’s.
Thanks Xray for the reminders.
Its Nationals fault! Brilliant mate!
Keep up Xray, I gather you’re little slower than the rest of us.
Let’s be honest, this should have been a one term National govt Hollyhock but the Christchurch earthquakes saved them.
It could be true because National handled the situation so well .There were mistakes made but overall most people were able to rebuild their lives quickly and most Chch people I know felt they were cared for . Houses in Rolleston and Pegasus when up quickly and businesses had the support required to get back up and running..Chch is now booming
Christchurch is a hole and the so called rebuild by National being handled so well is a straight out LIE.
Rolleston, Pegasus and Business? Judging by this group we now know you are elitist.
Rolleston suffered low damage due to the ground having underlying stones and stable rock. For such reasons, Rolleston has not been affected by liquefaction to date, and only a few houses have been condemned and demolished from earthquake damage.
Pegasus is a new town in the Waimakariri District of Canterbury, New Zealand. Named for the nearby Pegasus Bay, it is adjacent to the town of Woodend and is 25 km north of Christchurch.
https://www.pegasus-town.co.nz/
Now the truth…
There is a class action against EQC in relation to Canterbury houses badly assessed/repaired by EQC after the Canterbury Earthquakes. There may be in excess of 70,000 eligible homeowners. Owners have to opt in to the proceeding by 22 September 2023. A copy of the opt in notice is here. The website for the class action is http://www.eqconsold.co.nz.
National did nothing for middle and lower income kiwis as their immigration policies kept N.Z. to a low wage economy and many in Christchurch required court action for insurance claims.
Yes the earthquakes saved them from being a one term government but they weren’t for the reasons you lie about.
You are bang on xray
Natzos have very little talent also when you go through them one by one…bed leg basher Sam, animal cruelty expert Barbara–spare us.
All that can save AO/NZ this election is Te Pāti Māori, the Greens, and a new gen voter turnout. Rogernomics has to be rolled back once and for all in 2026–if not before.
Tiger Mountain, having listened to Shane Reti twice interviewed about health, I feel very confident he will be a major improvement. So too Erica Stanforth for education. That is a very good start
One of the reasons she kept her job was the lack of talent to replace her .That is not Hipkins fault but he is the leader so has to take the blame .Hopefully voters she the folly of voting based on the niceness of a leader that blinds them to the facts regarding policy and performance.
Image the outrage that would appear on this blog if it had have been a National minister.
Wahine Maori & Lesbian – he couldn’t sack her. She held an Oppression Olympics trump card
Kiri, Nash and Wood are all a failure of Ardern’s leadership.
Yeti. Yes, PM Hipkins inherited a mess, and a big national debt, when diversity Ardern conveniently shot through.
The PM may have poor advisors, and there are too many effete advisors and PR people wafting around the Beehive courtesy of the tax payer. That’s money that could be better spent on eg on mental health, but hang onto Mr Hipkins. He was set up with those sausage rolls for the King, and the possibility of brutal deputy Sepuloni, misrule Minister of Social Welfare and ruthless anklechopper of the Commissioner for Vulnerable Children trying to fit her big feet into his shoes is too terrible to contemplate. She may be a better fit for the ACT Party, and their selfish waka.
Labour spent $100 MILLION on acute mental health to deliver just 6 extra beds… not sure firing some ‘effete advisers’ (homophobic much?!?) will really turn the dial…
Chippy & Labour are toast now. Ardern is responsible for the whole stinking mess.
Nah, not homophobic, even hetero males can be as wet behind the ears or water on the brained as much as anybody else – and some of the advisers are femmes, from all over the place. I agree with you about the sole source of truth’s responsibility here, but don’t know why that huge input of money into mental health has resulted in so few beds, and have no more confidence in the Nats than I do in the Greens. Occasionally someone speaks on this site who I’d like to see in Parliament, but it’s not happening.
As much as i liked and rated Kiri she has to go because the entire Labour government needs to go.
They have all bought into woke identity politics and they have failed to deliver when they had a rare parliamentary majority. Even when Hipkins had a chance to overturn Jacindas weakness in not implementing a CGT he chickened out.
They need time in the wilderness to learn from this and come back in 26 or 29 with a renewed focus on winding back neoliberal economics and actually delivering to their core constituency of the working class.
The trouble is that lot that want to replace them aren’t good enough, so we need to see what the good people of NZ think when they vote. I will still be voting for Chippy my party vote and Māori party electoral vote I’m on the Maori roll, so I am strategically voting i hope many of our people follow suit.
Agree
It is a huge stretch these days to say that Labour’s core constituency is the working class. It once was but that was a long time ago!
1984 to be precise.
True Tiger Mountain. ACT looks like the only party with any talent this election.
Not sure Chippy understand s the phrase Benefit of the doubt ‘
There has to be no or minimal doubts to give the benefits. And all his errant ministers had HUGE doubts.
The core issue I think is that Labour simply has a dearth of talented Ministers so they’re constantly scraping the bottom of the barrel to fill key positions. I doubt Chippie genuinely wanted to hire Allan, it’s more like he had very few viable alternatives. Part of this of course stems from woke “diversity hiring”, especially artificially forcing half your Ministers to be women, which automatically will mean that potentially (of course not necessarily) more talented people are unable to rise in the ranks.
Some of you lot on this site sound just like the feral oldies (mostly white) people attending the anti co governance rallies around our country.
This is the inevitable result of choosing candidates based on a tick box of gender and race. There’s plenty more like her on the Labour list!
It’s well known that she’s a crazy, aggressive nutjob. A walking liability in fact. So Hipkins needs to own this because he didn’t do what Paddy Gower recently said he should have done: “A bonfire of the numpties.”
Andrew. She did do a law degree, and that requires a certain diligence and discipline, much more so than some wacky pc communications or public relations type apprenticeship at a polytech, or the absolutely underwhelming Uni of Waikato breeding ground of creepy crawlies.
For this incident no. It is possible to make a mistake, and to insist an employee get a mental health certification is tilting the balance in favour of the employer way too much. Don’t like someone in the workplace, say they’re incompetent, say they mental health issues and put the onus on them to prove otherwise. Damage done
Speaker, allow, this island thought debate, island, clone like that tv gerry Anderson , clone, saying, allow, withing our parliamentarian rules, how my culture care speaker, dare question parliament speakers rule. Who this island rule, you have this tv, Gerry Anderson clone, SPEAKING.
Er, she unfortunately was the minister for justice, driving a state car and apparently resisted arrest for blowing over limit. It’s not just any old numpty plowing into a stationary car while just over the limit. Unfortunately.
Eh,, weird, look at me , he! you how that preshere, working for u.
For Today.
Engel, eh!. What, ignorance follow, thought.
Name, this thing.
!EH egit. how knowing our care, eh giberish, fool, no care our knowing,, gibberish,, how that island, sheep only to mow the grass, for the money wealth art to see, only the choice,, to see. He fool.
How, your ignorant thougth money us, fool, you greed exploit say. How that to understand our humanity, working for you.
Eh! fool, wake up to our social care, humanity, fool what like laugh and riddicule, greeds exploit in our parliament, fool, the island i have been on, fool, aotearoa, is our land to be on.
What a cancer on our humanity, capitalist exploit, what a cancer.
Shoot the socialists, as always, who them, the shooters, harm our socialist care, them never knowing our care, those ignorant.
Farm, fence, profit exploit, care no, profit.
Best knowing my daft thought, all greeds exploit riddicule.
Best knowing my daft thought, all greeds exploit riddicule.
Should, Engel, get China, eh! socialist thought, to socialist care, eh Trot, what train journey care.
Engel.
Egits, care no harm.
Farm fence, eh us wining. FOOLS, HUMANITY, care grasp.
Moron, how this you say,how you, moron, say.
End of our present government, is a goin thing,, why socialist thought, care being lost,, why shallow, look , promise others, shall never provide, yet, time and tide, dare say, egit trots, understand our social knowing.
End of our present government, is a goin thing,, why socialist thought, care being lost,, why shallow, look , promise others, shall never provide, yet, time and tide, dare say, egit trots, understand our social knowing.
Today, they missed the prefect.
See understand election loss , the farm fence imidiate change ; tunnel national v wellington you, who our knowing, leader, his. loss.
Prefect, how that others side missed teacher their ignorance.
Who those ridicule, care our humanity their riddicule , wh breath.
Engel.
Fred, Karl.our argue, WHAT WE CALL THIS THING.
care why. compulsory unionism, why care.
Care wit the fuck, this farm fence,, riots in the street, shall this farm fence provide.
Eh shall our care understand,, hows yours, care know.
Best knowin all the white fright, im voting green, why my socialist thought and care is why my party vote is goin.
PIKE RIVER, WHO HAS FORGOT.Those, across their side.
Hard lines coming this elect time,, care three, choices for Party, vote. Labour, Te Partie Maori or Green, party vote those, who negate harms exploit of capitalism!s profit, god profit exploit .
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