Key policy lands amid distractions
National’s 52-page Covid response strategy was nothing if not detailed, but there was a handy 10-point summary. Enter ACT leader David Seymour, swift to congratulate the Nats for a document he described as familiar; saying nine of its points had previously been made in ACT documents and statements during the past year.
Here we have further proof, if proof were needed, that when two political parties are singing from the same songbook it can position them closely enough for one to suck the oxygen from the other’s lungs. And Seymour, ascendant in the polls, has been achieving well on that score throughout the pandemic’s resurgence in New Zealand.
Judith Collins’ National has been languishing by contrast, and here she stood, with a crucial piece of policy, intended to be a thoroughly workedthrough plan, in contrast to the airiness of so much Government planning this year, while Seymour is claiming credit for the incisive, attention-grabbing bits. Whether that’s fair is a different question from whether it’s persuasive. National may well feel it’s been doing some heavy lifting, while ACT, through a combination of like-mindedness and adroit commentary, stands to benefit disproportionately.
The Opposition has mounted a coherent challenge to the Government’s portrayal of a country on a pathway requiring purposeful patience, holding firm for ‘‘the best possible summer’’. National’s document provides real focus for those seeking a better possibility.
Much as it’s the effectiveness of Covid strategy that matters most to New Zealand right now, the impact on political standings is also seriously significant.
Collins has been widely held to be on borrowed time at the helm of National, a perception heightened by recent polls, including a threepercentage-point drop, to 23 per cent, in the latest 1 News/Colmar Brunton poll.
It’s significant that it came on the cusp of National’s policy release, with Sir John Key emerging from the political crypt to weigh in. In large measure, what he said will resonate: The Government needs a clearer plan to end restrictions, and to let the public know the criteria for opening the borders. And the alarmingly stalling vaccination programme needs more carrots and sticks to encourage uptake.
Then, for provocation’s sake, he indulged in his ‘‘smug hermit kingdom’’ crack, a dodgy comparison between the strictures of New Zealand’s border restrictions and the generational isolationism of North Korea, which is enforced by hideous brutality. It’s a comparison Seymour was happy to repeat, uncredited, yesterday.
It’s true that Key was essentially presenting the same message as his party. But independent of it. And since the Nats openly acknowledged they hadn’t known this was coming, there was a strong ‘‘here, let me do it’’ aspect to his commentary that didn’t enhance Collins’ standing as a steady hand on the helm.
Moreover, it’s more than a quibble that National is insisting its policy has drawn on expert input, but it deflected scrutiny on who the experts are. To invoke anonymous expertise hardly enhances credibility.
Regrettably, yesterday also brought the wretched news of 45 new Covid cases, 12 of them unlinked. With this, the prospect of Auckland’s release from lockdown purgatory any time soon diminishes. So it’s hardly as though things are ticking over nicely for Government strategy either.
Enter David Seymour, swift to congratulate the Nats for a document he described as familiar.