Bridges’ redemption test and how he fared
Nats speak up for workers, small firms and economy
The most dramatic thing about the return of Parliament was perhaps Act leader David Seymour’s lockdown hair — a luxuriant, springing bouffant so large nobody could have sat within 2m of him even if they had been allowed.
Beyond that, the much-anticipated event after five weeks of lockdown yesterday was a string of speeches and questions about the handling of the Covid-19 responses, which elicited little new information.
It was, however, National Party leader Simon Bridges’ first chance to question Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern directly in five weeks.
It was also a chance for him to redeem himself from the drubbing he received after his initial responses to the announcements she had made about lockdowns.
In that regard, Bridges did what he had to do. He did not set the world alight with rhetoric, although he did have a few strong lines.
While Ardern focused on emphasising the benefits of the lockdown and the steps the Government had taken, Bridges acknowledged that before focusing on those who were hurting as a result of it.
He said the lockdown was not so bad for those who were still being paid — including politicians and bureaucrats.
But for the thousands who had lost their jobs, it was a disaster.
He did not get an inch out of Ardern, but he did peg himself and National firmly on the side of workers, small business — and the economy. His job was to try to nudge the debate over to an area in which the Government might not shine so brightly.
He used a few of the PM’s own tricks in doing this. She regularly raises emails or cards she’s had from children, or admirers of Government policy.
Bridges had Margaret, who had had to delay a colonoscopy to check for cancer. He had a chiropractor, who could not tend to his patients, and a baker.
He pushed at Ardern’s apparently instinctive reluctance to involve the private sector too much in that recovery, saying these were not times that should be left solely to “a committee in Wellington”.
Ardern did him the favour of not making a jibe about his own woes since they had last met, the rumours and the leaks — perhaps because of her own ban on politicising
the issue. In fact, she gave the Opposition credit for backing the lockdown.
The day also allowed the other party leaders a chance to set out their respective positions on what lay ahead.
Seymour may not have had a hair cut, but he wanted a pay cut even more. He tried to get leave for legislation to cut MPs’ pay by 20 per cent as ministers had done. That was, unsurprisingly, vetoed by the Government for reasons of complexity rather than self-interest.
Greens co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson pushed for conservation to benefit from economic stimulus packages.
Then there was Winston Peters. He began by quoting Gandhi talking about the seven sins. He went on to say the economy was doomed from 2008 and 2009 and double-doomed now.
Peters’ prescription was a dish he had prepared earlier. Decades earlier, in fact.
It consisted of a plan to boost manufacturing in New Zealand instead of importing goods, giving Kiwis jobs over foreigners, and “putting up the shutters to more offshore ownership of this country’s economy”. The more things change, the more some things stay the same.