It’s time for a cleanout
There is no ‘‘cultural issue’’ in the National Party, its leader says. Why anyone should believe Simon Bridges, I do not know. This week he ordered a review into employment practices within the party. Yes, it is important to ensure everyone feels safe at work. It’s good that a review is being undertaken into workplace conditions within National. But for Bridges to say there is no ‘‘cultural issue’’ in National – well, that’s just laughable.
The past few weeks, it’s as if a light has been turned on in Parliament’s dungeons. We’ve found piles of dirty laundry. Nobody has liked seeing the spiders crawl out. In an all-out political war, there have been allegations of harassment, there was a secret recording and a discussion that seriously questioned how much power wealthy political donors hold. It’s filthy, it’s despicable, and it’s a major distraction. A party-commissioned report into workplace culture will not be able to clear out the toxic sludge that appears to have been festering in Molesworth St for years. The National Party needs a full-scale cleanout.
Bridges has stayed on as leader, through what he has described as one of the hardest weeks any political leader has had to face. He may have done so because the party’s ranks are critically lacking.
Deputy Paula Bennett is just as implicated in this war as he is. And Judith Collins, who is just two points shy of Bridges in the latest Colmar Brunton preferred prime minister poll, is hardly clean of controversy.
She was at the centre of National’s last big scandal, when investigative journalist Nicky Hager dropped his Dirty Politics book. In it, he exposed the role of bloggers and shady political operatives in National Party campaigns. In Hager’s opinion, her connections with the operatives made her ‘‘unfit’’ to govern.
And what do you know, but in the background of the latest scandal, some of those old names have popped up again. Adviser Simon Lusk has reappeared, and so too has Cameron Whale Oil Slater. The sideline spectators, who have made their names by throwing mud on the field, still manage to pull all of the wrong strings with National. They need to be cut off. The best thing Bridges can do now is start afresh. He needs to clear the deck.
The party needs some people who actually stand for something. People capable of . . . what was politics about again? Contesting some ideas.
National used to say it could provide a ‘‘strong and stable government’’. It used to stand for everyday, hardworking Kiwis. It used to be a party that claimed to cut through the crap, to work for a New Zealand that gives everyone a fair go. Now, all I can see is a bunch of career politicians who have watched too much House of Cards. Far from being able to keep an entire government steady, they can’t even keep their own party afloat.
Instead of looking to grow the economy, their sole and primary focus seems to be growing their own power and influence. And that crap, well, it looks like they’ve been digging it up and storing it for later to fling across the caucus room.
It’s tragic stuff. Tragic, for one, because the only real opposition left is David Seymour. Luckily, Dancing with the Stars has finished.
It’s tragic, also, because of the harm this party’s filth has done to politics.
Dirty Politics should have been a warning shot for the politicians to clean up their actions. Yet, their arrogance ballooned and now we’re dealing with a dumpster fire so huge, I’m struggling to fit it into this column.
If National’s goal was to turn everyone completely off politics, then it’s doing a decent job. It’s proven that people are right to have so little trust in politicians. Jami-Lee Ross’ secret recording of Bridges cast serious doubt on the integrity of National’s candidate selection.
A man allegedly gave $100,000 to the party, and asked for more Chinese MPs. A friend of the alleged donor has entered the party’s Candidate College for the 2020 election.
Despite assertions that there’s nothing untoward going on, anyone’s who’s been watching politics will be left asking: Why trust ’em?
Those who haven’t been watching the sludge gush down Parliament’s steps probably answered that question long ago: You can’t trust them.
I can’t think of any reason why we should trust a group of people who repeatedly use ‘‘between the bedsheets’’ in conversation, as a threat.
National has just one solution, and if it has any hope of engaging voters before 2020, it better do it soon. Call in the hazmat team and order a full cleanout.
Find some politicians who care about the real world, and not just their Beehive desks.
If National’s goal was to turn everyone completely off politics, then it’s doing a decent job.