Bogged down in Boomers
National Party leader Simon Bridges’ attempt to flex the party’s tired old law and order muscles by copying New South Wales’ bespoke Strike Force Raptor in order to crush the gang problem ended up crushing Bridges instead.
Bridges came back from Australia pumped after having absorbed the finer points of ScoMo’s rightwing policies. The Nats, having had their originality thought glands removed at birth, needed to borrow and flesh out their vision with that of the sunburnt country (now simply called the burning country).
The kite-flying of previous ‘‘discussion documents’’ back at home had created accusations that the documents were all mouth and trousers, dog-whistle politics, and would be watered down come election time. Believing that the tough-on-crime stance is a hardy perennial that plays well with voters, Bridges, a former Crown prosecutor, warmed to the theme of gang control by giving a section of the police force special powers to enforce the will of the state.
Some call that fascism. Mike Kennedy, a former New South Wales detective and senior lecturer at Western Sydney University, called it a nonsense. Contrary to Bridges’ magicked-up claims and stats about the success of Strike Force Raptor, Kennedy said the military-style force had been a complete disaster across the ditch.
Bridges’ myth of Kiwi gang extinction, rigged up as a vote-pulling prophecy, showed how out of touch he is with the electorate. Burgeoning gang numbers, due in part to the Australian Government’s deportation of Kiwis, who have lived most of their lives in Aussie, have created at tide of resentment toward our closest ally.
A welcoming hand may not be extended to those Australians wanting to immigrate to NZ to get away from the fires brought about by a coal-fired energy policy on collision with climate change.
Bridges showed a critical lack of elementary nous in wanting to borrow and impose a failed Australian law and order policy to crush the gangs. He would do well to remember that this year a devastating terrorist attack was carried out by an Australian, and that thousands of Kiwis living in Australia have few rights and are treated as second-class citizens.
Despite National having a 17-year-old as its candidate for Palmerston North, it seems bogged down in Boomers compared to the Greens and Labour, led by a young and groovy prime minister.
However, the coalition struggles under the dead weight of the unenlightened Ngati Redneckery of NZ First. If only Jacinda could remove them, like her wisdom tooth, from the equation. There would be some initial swelling, but are they fit for purpose for a world waking up to the need for radical change policies to keep it spinning?
NZ First has put the kibosh on the coalition being a change government. The NZ First Foundation election funding scandal isn’t going away, and the party, too, is at risk of not keeping up with the mood of an electorate tired of Winston’s cute, round-the-rugged-rock-the-ragged-rascal-ran evasion tactics.
Bridges has a habit of looking pathetic, but it’s hard to work up the energy to really dislike him. He has energy, and the media give him considerably more air time than the previous Labour opposition leader, while high-flyer Christopher Luxon hovers on the wing.
A snap election may see Luxon in as the next opposition leader eager to go for the top job. But would a conservative evangelical have the mindset to cope with cascading, tipping point climate change disasters? Old-school-thinking politicians, wanting to preserve a way of life, will seem increasingly dangerous and irrelevant.