Why Chippy is connecting

I’ve had a surprising number of people who had been scathing of Jacinda tell me how impressed they’ve been with Chippy’s handling of the storms.

He has managed to win over a lot of people and win them back to Labour because after all the smiles and kindness of Jacinda, people just wanted competence.

I think Jacinda’s kindness became a criticism of her because endlessly hurting while you are being told to be kind starts to wear away cynically on people.

It wasn’t a fault in Jacinda or her positive and empathetic nature, it was just that Covid was so harsh her kindness couldn’t gloss over the pain.

Chippy’s leadership has been helped immensely by Wayne Brown’s train wreck interview during the Auckland Anniversary Flooding and the enormity of the challenge in front of us post Gabrielle demands a practicality that Chippy exudes.

Kiwis have shown us their good bugger natures by immediately stepping up to help their neighbours and fellow citizens in this time of stress and need and it reminds us of our stoic values.

Covid was a tough sell because much of the crisis and stress was caused by prevention of a mass death event that didn’t eventuate BECAUSE of our precautions, Cyclone Gabrielle, Hale and the Auckland Anniversary Floods however are all physical damage we can see and appreciate the enormity of.

The need to adapt and change to avoid the images we are seeing is far more visceral and real this time and with two more cyclones brewing in the Coral Sea, the urgency to adapt generated by voters won’t stop.

Climate Change and global warming from human made pollution was always some theoretical trouble we faced at the end of the century, the public haven’t understood how extreme the journey to the end of that century would be and as they glimpse our immediate future they will be politically motivated in ways they’ve never been before for solution based responses.

Chippy has the edge here in being perceived to have those skills because he’s doing it right now.

Chris Luxon and National have argued they intend to rip up any of Labour’s climate change legislation to date, so have no actual plans as to how to deal with Climate Change.

Chippy and Labour have proved they are good in a crisis and are confident under the high ball, Luxon and National in comparison seem confused, not sure of what their actual policy plans are and  are prone to u-turns after 24 hours.

Life in NZ is going to feel like a continual crisis this year with weather events and the economy and I don’t think National have proven they could lead in a crisis yet because all they’ve relied on so far was a tsunami of toxicity against Jacinda.

Remove Jacinda and National don’t seem to have anticipated what they should do next. Having no policy and becoming reliant on sentiment is a stupid strategy and National are paying for it now.

Their release of their 3 Waters Policy is just bullshit and once the user pays water rates system is announced, those voters will feel deceived and tricked by National’s announcement. It feels like a short term sugar hit to try and pierce the News headlines which have just be  wall to wall Chippy.

This will bite National in the arse once the water costings are worked out.

The challenge for Chippy is the scale of radical adaptation and big ideas is incredibly steep and he has to deliver solutions not just cautious tinkering.

 

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