The game of ruling things in and out is really all about fear
ACT New Zealand leader David Seymour’s alternative budget this week and Labour’s reaction to it kicked off the traditional game of Political Bogeyman: trying to scare the voters off voting for your opponent because of the risk posed by their buddies.
National Party leader Christopher Luxon might want to take it as a compliment that he is now being interrogated on what he will and will not adopt from Act policies in any future government — these questions don’t tend to get asked if your chances of getting into power at all are negligible.
After Seymour unveiled his alternative budget last weekend, Luxon was grilled on whether he would adopt Act’s prescription for cuts to the public service, partial asset sales and scrapping ministries including the Ministry for Women and Ministry of Maori Development.
But these things are hammered out in negotiating rooms after parties know the strength of the hand they hold — not in advance.
That has always been the case — Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern would also refuse to publicly run through the Green Party policy list ticking off the ones she would pick and which she would dump.
There are occasional exceptions to this — usually if a support party’s policy becomes too problematic for a major party on the campaign trail. That happened with the Green Party’s policy on a wealth tax in 2020 — Ardern flat ruled it out.
Of late, National has started rattling the wealth tax maracas again and so after some toing and froing Ardern has once again ruled it out.
The only thing Luxon did commit to this week was that Nicola Willis would be his finance minister — that would not go to Seymour.
That too was no surprise. Under MMP the finance minister has always been from the same party as the prime minister.
You don’t separate the head from the purse strings. It is too much power to hand over and would be catastrophic if there was a breakdown in the governing arrangement.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson also later stated Labour would keep hold of its own purse strings, whatever an election might throw up.
Nonetheless, after Luxon ruled it out Seymour cried foul about ruling things out prematurely.
That is the same David Seymour who is curious about what Labour would rule in and out from the Maori Party’s manifesto. It is also the same David Seymour who had earlier said he did not necessarily expect to be finance minister or think it was important — and what was important was the policy gains Act could get, not the positions.
All of this is part of the game of trying to spoil your rival’s chances by highlighting the dangers of what may happen after the next election.
Seymour does not actually want the prime minister to rule out too much from the Maori Party manifesto yet. That would deprive him of months of trying to scaremonger about the prospects of the Maori Party having the balance of power.
TODAY is Saturday, May 14, the 134th day of 2022. There are 231 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1643 — Louis XIV accedes to the French throne at the age of 4 on the death of his father, Louis XIII. His mother, Anne of Austria, becomes regent.
1796 — English physician Edward Jenner performs the first successful vaccination, inoculating an 8yearold boy against smallpox and laying the foundation for modern immunology.
1804 — Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s expedition, commissioned by Thomas Jefferson, sets out from St Louis for the Pacific Coast.
Seymour has not been subtle in that. After recent polls showed the Maori Party in kingmaker position, Act sent out an email to its supporters titled: ‘‘keep the Maori Party out of Government’’.
It pointed out the Maori Party coleaders had said that because their party believed in a Tiriticentric approach, it could not work with Act.
It was not aimed at stopping people voting for the Maori Party — it was aimed at stopping people voting for Labour. Act wants people to conclude Labour will need the Maori Party to get into power — and that the Maori Party will have a lot of sway.
Luxon will be more than happy for Seymour to take the lead on that tactic; he could not be so blatant and nor would he want to jeopardise the relationship with the Maori Party — just in case.
In the past, National has tried to rustle up similar fear campaigns about a LabourGreen government. In an attempt to blunt that, when it was in opposition in 2017, Labour signed a ‘‘memorandum of understanding’’ with the Greens and the Greens agreed to Labour’s fiscal rules.
In the end, the election made that redundant and New Zealand First had more influence. NZ First leader Winston Peters always eschewed any political premarital arrangements.
That may work for a party in the centre. It is not as easy for those whose partners are preordained.
Labour is also playing this game. After Act released its alternative budget, Robertson warned Act’s policy was ‘‘naive and dangerous’’.
He then said it was for Luxon to justify how he could tolerate it and to answer questions on just what he would adopt from it.
Robertson did point out one truth: that small parties could only put up extreme packages because they knew they would never be adopted holusbolus.
In an ideal world for the larger party there are smaller measures that come close to its position. There are ways to help that along: for example National may well decide not to adopt a policy similar to Act’s for court orders on gang members to restrict their movements and activities. It could ‘‘give’’ it to Act in negotiations.
Sometimes it also suits the larger party to let the smaller party take the flak for a policy it does like, but is wary of pushing.
But those small parties should be aware that once the governing term is done, the larger party often shows no compunction about claiming some of those measures as its own.
1840 — Te Rauparaha agrees to sign the Treaty of Waitangi at Kapiti, believing it will guarantee him possession of all the territories he has won in battle. At the insistence of Major Thomas Bunbury, he signs another copy of the Treaty on June 19.
1866 — General Grant, carrying a cargo of gold and with 83 people on board, founders near
Auckland Island. The 10 survivors were not rescued for 18 months.
1870 — Although Christ’s College pupils had played a form of the sport since 1853, a rugby match between Nelson College and Nelson Rugby Club becomes the first officially documented rugby match in New Zealand.
1882 — In heavy swells Benvenue breaks loose from its moorings in Caroline Bay, just outside Timaru’s breakwater, and drifting towards shore becomes grounded, turns broadside and capsizes. The crew make for the nearby City of Perth, which is also drifting ashore, becoming grounded alongside Benvenue, during which three lives are lost. A rescue party rows towards City of Perth to offer assistance, all three boats capsizing, leaving 40 struggling in the mountainous seas, six of whom perished.
1888 — Dunedin’s Joe Scott begins the first day of competition in a 72hour world championship walking match at the Royal Agricultural Hall, London.
1897 — An innovative ‘‘Pigeongram’’ postal service begins whereby pigeons carry messages attached to their legs on the 90km journey between Great Barrier Island and Auckland.
1907 — The Society for the Promotion of the Health of Women and Children (Plunket Society) is formed in Dunedin. Frederic Truby King addressed the first meeting of the organisation nine days later.
1925 — Sir Francis Henry Dillon Bell (Reform) takes office as prime minister after leading the country since William Massey became ill the previous year. Although his term lasted just 16 days, he is the first New Zealandborn prime minister.
1941 — Five crew members die when the mine sweeper Puriri is wrecked in the Hauraki Gulf.
1948 — The British mandate in Palestine ends, and David BenGurion, the head of the Jewish
Wearing her hardwon academic regalia, Miss Vivienne Martin is holding the telescope she used to read notes on the lecture room blackboards. Being partially sighted from birth did not stop Vivienne trying for the qualifications she needed to be an educational psychologist and so further her ambition to help other people with disabilities. Raised in Waitahuna, Miss Martin gained her BA in education from Otago University in May 1982 at the official capping ceremony.
Agency, proclaims the establishment of the state of Israel.
1964 — Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev and two more heads of state set off an explosion diverting the River Nile at a ceremony during the construction of the Aswan High Dam. The dam was designed by the Moscowbased Hydroproject Institute.
1965 — The Queen unveils a memorial to the late US president John F. Kennedy on a field at Runnymede, the site west of London where the Magna Carta was signed in 1215.
1976 — New Zealand Railways announces that Dunedin’s railcar service will no longer operate.
1987 — Armed troops under Lieutenantcolonel Sitiveni Rabuka storm the Fijian parliament and declare a military government after kidnapping Prime Minister Dr Timoci Bavadra and his cabinet in the South Pacific’s first coup.
2011 — The pilot of a gyrocopter is killed and his passenger seriously injured when the aircraft crashes at Awanui, north of Kaitaia.
2020 — The global death toll from Covid19 passes 300,000, confirmed infections standing at 4.4 million.
Today’s birthdays
Lawrence Carthage Weathers, New Zealandborn Australian serviceman and recipient of Victoria Cross in WW1 (18901918); Stewart Bell Maclennan, New Zealand artist (190373); George Lucas, US film director/producer (1944); Frank Nobilo, New Zealand golfer (1960);Tim Roth, US actor (1961); Cate Blanchett, Australian actress (1969); Natalie Appleton, British singer (1973); Sally Martin, New Zealand actress (1984); Mark Zuckerberg, US internet entrepreneur (1984).
Quote of the day:
Civis once, as a child, sang a duet with a brother at the annual church concert (the brother, though younger, was more selfconfident, and knew to bow in response to polite applause); was in the chorus for a nonacted performance of Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas while at secondary school; sang in a church choir for years, and once with the Dunedin Choral Society (now the City Choir); but the biggest musical performance that Civis was ever part of was the Annual Demonstration Concert in the Dunedin Town Hall, presented by all the children enrolled in Dunedin’s Saturday Morning Music Classes, and conducted by Aart Brusse.
No child by then, Civis was on stage to support, by playing alongside, a 6yearold son learning to play the violin through SMMC by the Suzuki (now ‘‘Listen & Learn’’) method, which meant learning to play the violin with him — an interesting experience for one who struggled unsuccessfully with the piano for two years from age 11.
Three children were joined successively by Civis in their Suzuki violin lessons, but that pales to insignificance when one realises that Mr Brusse taught and conducted SMMC from their foundation in 1968, and still contributes to them as musical director.
These memories were triggered by a photo in the May 4 ODT, showing Mr Brusse with GovernorGeneral Dame Cindy Kiro, after receiving from her the Queen’s Service Medal in recognition of his services to music.
Those services were much wider that just the SMMC, for which he organised Education Ministry reports and applications for classes, staff salaries, purchase of instruments and funding.
He was head of music at Bayfield High School for 37 years, developing the school orchestra, choir and jazz band, supporting the annual Secondary Schools Music Festival, the Chamber Music New Zealand competition and regular holiday courses.
He has also been musical director for several Opera Company productions, conducted the Central Otago Regional Orchestra, taught cello at Bayfield, tutored at the University of Otago’s music department and played in the Rare Byrds group.
Thousands of SMMC alumni and many others will, with Civis, applaud the honour awarded to Aart Brusse, and thank him for enriching their lives.