World won’t end despite faux outrage
Forget ‘relentlessly positive’, the major parties are relentlessly nicking each other’s ideas.
When Jacinda Ardern rose from the ashes of a Labour Party in turmoil, an interesting thing happened on my Facebook feed.
Friends who had never once shown an interest in politics crawled out of the woodwork, appropriating Hillary Clinton’s hashtag ‘‘imwithher’’.
Nothing of substance had been announced at that stage – it was the same party, same policies, just a slightly reordered list.
We all have friends whose leanings can be deduced, but these ones had never uttered a mildly political statement in my years of knowing them.
It’s a great thing they’re interested – we were at risk of shuffling towards an election with a predictable outcome and the same programme of work. Depending on one’s politics that may or may not be a good thing.
What’s universally positive is that whatever the outcome, even if it’s barely a departure from the status quo, this might be the holy grail of elections – one where policies get tested.
But now, I’m noticing something new on my Facebook feed, and I suspect I’m not alone in this.
There’s a clear left-right divide and the slinging across the chasm in between is predictably tedious.
While the campaign and first of the leaders’ debates on Thursday may have been a picture of ‘‘relentlessly positive’’ decorum, many of the people backing those leaders are anything but.
Things might have reached their most eye-roll inducing the past week with National’s plan to extend paid parental leave to 22 weeks, and likely to 26 later on. That’s despite English vetoing Labour’s bill to do so in 2015.
It was a move of the most cynical order and deserves to be called out.
But here’s the revelation – they steal each other’s ideas and Labour is not above it either.
Last week they took National’s GP policy in its entirety and lopped another $10 off for everyone.
National pledged 600,000 more low-income New Zealanders would have access to $18 GP visits, after it extended access to anyone with a community services card, and expanded eligibility for community services card to an additional 350,000 people with low incomes and high housing costs.
That’s on top of those already in ‘‘very low cost access’’ (VLCA) areas, where adults already pay $18 for a GP consultation and teenagers $12.
Under Labour’s policy, New Zealanders with a community services card would be charged $8 to see the doctor – $10 less than National’s policy, and everyone else would get $10 off their doctor’s fee. For VLCA patients that meant adults would pay $8 and teenagers $2.
It costs three times as much and is largely covered by the tax cuts the Government announced in the May Budget, which families would not be getting under Labour.
There was less faux outrage over that, but it was still flung in the other direction.
So it pays to approach the tumult of an election with some perspective. Could it be, perhaps, that if there’s a change of Government – or not – that Kiwis might still go about their day on September the 24th?
I’m too passive on social media to remind friends of the last time NZ First leader Winston Peters was involved in post-election negotiations.
Kiwis went on their Christmas holidays and beltway luvvies (newfound and seasoned) were delivered a much-needed reminder that New Zealand didn’t fall to pieces in the six weeks without a Government.