Reading the room in wake of disaster
In the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle, the Opposition has been somewhat haunted by the fate of former National Party leader Simon Bridges, after the Covid pandemic first arrived in New Zealand.
Three years ago, as the country entered the first lockdowns and began the rituals of mask wearing and 20 second hand washings.
Bridges made the error of treating the Covid response as a normal set of government actions that he felt duty bound to belittle and oppose. Big mistake.
The wider public saw him as trying to make political capital out of a national disaster. For Bridges, the episode spelled the beginning of the end of his political career.
Post-Gabrielle, Christopher Luxon has tiptoed around that dismal precedent. On occasions, he has been at great pains to preface his comments with approval of what the government has been doing, even hinting at times about adopting a bipartisan approach.
However, it has gradually become evident that National’s spirit of co-operation would extend only to furthering our ‘‘adaptation’’ to climate change, as distinct from supporting policies that address its causes.
The Opposition language has tended to be one of acquiescence to global warming, and of finding ways to live with its consequences, rather than trying to identify and change the behaviours contributing to climate change.
Out of the blue last week, National backbench MP Maureen Pugh also sought to turn back the clock by expressing scepticism to an interviewer about the evidence for human-induced climate change.
Pugh was carpeted by her leader and promptly recanted her views, in what one journalist likened to a hostage video.
Pugh could be forgiven if she felt she had been made a sacrificial victim of the politics of appearance.
In practice, Pugh is not much of an outlier. As widely noted on social media, Luxon himself made no mention of climate change in his opening speech to Parliament last week.
In the recent past, National has also opposed (a) any substantial measures to reduce agricultural emissions, (b) the halting of the exploration of the country’s oil and gas reserves, and (c) the introduction of tax incentives to encourage the uptake of low polluting vehicles on our roads.
Overall, the cyclone’s aftermath hasn’t made it easy for the Opposition to avoid looking needlessly negative about the disaster response.
After criticising the government’s initial cyclone support package, the Opposition then had to watch from the sidelines while the package was largely embraced by the likes of Federated Farmers, and by the pipfruit industry body representing growers.
Similarly on the law and order front, Luxon made claims of widespread looting post-cyclone. Police Commissioner Andrew Coster largely dispelled those fears by pointing out that although domestic violence reports have increased, the reports of dishonesty (ie stealing) have actually been lower than usual across Hawkes Bay and Tairawhiti.
It comes down to an ability to read the room. Despite the havoc wreaked by Gabrielle, communities have come together to help each other, amid stirring stories of heroism and endurance.
If some politicians can’t find a way to celebrate these aspects of the national character and work co- operatively, they might be better advised to say nothing at all.