Self-obsessed Nats let failing Labour off hook
Increasingly it looks as if the Government wants safer borders in the same way that I want to lose weight every New Year’s Day. That is, we would both be delighted if it happened, somehow, but there’s no real link between our goals and our subsequent actions.
After last year’s debacle on border worker testing, it could be reasonably expected that the crucial vaccination programme for MIQ staff would be closely tracked. But again, the Government remained clueless as to which, and even how many, workers had received their jabs.
Yesterday, the MBIE chief executive dropped a bombshell at the health select committee hearing: an infected security guard, who was meant to be tested regularly, had not had a Covid test since November. It’s a stunning admission that strikes at the heart of assurances given by ministers since mid-last year.
Labour MPs on the committee used their muscle to steer the hearing away from that failure, into time-wasting trivia and distraction. National’s Covid response spokesperson, Chris Bishop, reportedly had his head in his hands in frustration.
Bishop’s colleagues in his own party could at least give him a break and not cause too many more unnecessary distractions of their own. Unfortunately for the Opposition, as cracks start to emerge in the reputation for competence Labour established during the pandemic, unnecessary distraction has become a theme.
Leaks from caucus were followed by rumours of a possible coup involving former leader Simon Bridges and first-term MP Christopher Luxon. The fact that rumours have not even established whether Bridges would be leader and Luxon his deputy, or vice versa, suggests planning is not well advanced. But the talk by itself is destabilising.
Both men are ambitious, and aware of the dangers of getting what you’ve always wanted but at the wrong time. Would it be better to take a shot at the country’s most popular politician, Jacinda Ardern, in the 2023 election, or swoop into the leadership after a loss?
Their insouciance gives the impression of a pair of likeable rogues, each planning to double-cross the other and make off with the loot after a successful heist.
The problem is that the loot is illusory. Despite the openings presented by Labour’s continued failures, there is no prospect of victory for National while it remains a self-obsessed rabble. Even if a smooth transition could be orchestrated somehow, it’s not clear that Bridges or Luxon is a saviour.
Bridges can barely contain his delight at the chaos, mugging for the camera in pantomime fashion, and dropping broad hints of disloyalty only to reel them back and blame ‘‘phraseology’’ for any misunderstanding. But his personal vote plummeted in Tauranga. Even from the outside, he is not safe from fallout.
Luxon has been dubbed ‘‘the new John Key’’ but, with a CV of business accolades, adoration from the lay party membership, and no record of political experience or achievement, at the moment he sounds more like the ‘‘last Todd Muller’’.
The longer leaks and rumours continue, the more National’s stock plummets. This is a hugely wasted opportunity for the Opposition to appear like a credible government in waiting. The prime minister is incredibly popular, and will remain so well into 2023. But Labour, with the unmatched potential of an outright majority, is butting up against the limits of its competence.
Auckland light rail, which was meant to be finished by 2023, will be lucky to have escaped another working group by then. It may still end up getting punters to Mt Roskill faster than the new ‘‘express commuter train’’ from Hamilton, if they leave now.
Despite the hype of 2019’s Wellbeing Budget, advocacy groups say the mental health sector is in a worse state than Labour found it. The ghost of KiwiBuild was summoned by Megan Woods releasing videos boasting about a new flagship scheme that homed only 12 families in its first year.
Worse, when the Government is moved to take bold action, key figures seem not to understand the consequences. Finance Minister Grant Robertson didn’t initially believe the Reserve Bank and Treasury when they said printing money would lead to asset inflation and widen inequality.
Confronted with landlords booting out tenants to sell up, because of the changes to tax deductibility for interest on investors’ mortgages, Robertson simply said it wasn’t the Government’s fault – even though encouraging investors to sell up is the only way his deductibility policy can get more first-home buyers into the market.
There is a huge gulf between words and action. In contrast, dissidents trying to stoke instability within National have an easier job than Ardern and her ministers, and than me on New Year’s Day: for the National stirrers, just talking about it will make it happen.
The longer leaks and rumours continue, the more National’s stock plummets.