Sinking without a trace.
According to the latest Taxpayers Union Curia poll, National has the support of just 28.4% of respondents.
Given that National are the leading party in the coalition government it is almost unbelievable that they could drop so low.
The leader of the party, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, is said to be stunned by the result. He was attending a meeting this morning (Friday 6th March) where he was discussing his government’s actions for fixing the basics and building the future for New Zealand.
In my opinion he would have been much better off by taking action to fulfil some more of his pre-election promises.
All New Zealanders should want to live in a place where we can respect one another, get along well and foster a better New Zealand.
But given the ongoing agitation for separatism from Maori based on a wrongful interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi and supported by calls for co-governance based solely on ethnicity, we will never see a better New Zealand where we all respect one another and get along well. Not without change.
It was this exact reason that was one of the main drivers for change at the election in 2023 which created the current situation where we have a coalition government made up of three different political parties.
National’s polling results are dropping like a boulder and it is my belief that until they decide to actually do what they promised and return New Zealand to a democratically ruled country rather than one where ethnicity is the guiding factor, they are rapidly heading for another defeat at the next election.
He has been said by some who know him as confident of his own leadership and decision making skills; who doesn’t always accept advice from others and who delegates authority to others. Whilst his tendency to delegate rather than micro-management might have been okay in the business world, politics is a totally different place.
His style of leadership may well be that tendency to delegate and let others take responsibility for their own jobs without needing to micro-manage them, but his problem in this situation where his party is dropping through the bottom of the polls, is that he is the leader and as such he must take responsibility for this result.
The coalition government was voted into power by the electorate on the basis that the voters wanted a change in direction from the race based decision making that had been the basis of the Labour government’s regulatory changes and it would do well to remember that fact.
New Zealand had the oldest democratic government in the world after passing the universal suffrage legislation in 1893, giving the right to vote to all citizens regardless of colour creed or gender and the electorate will not condone any implementation of race based legislation no matter what justification is promoted for such.
The electorate voted for change and currently they are not getting that change. In fact if we look at the current government’s actions we can see that instead of change we are actually getting more of the same race based legislation that the electorate voted against in 2023.
We see in the Fast Track Bill that this government is in fact including more requirements based on ethnicity rather than less (as evidenced by the guaranteed appointments on the evaluation panels solely based on ethnicity).
“Iwi” are mentioned many times in the Bill and the proposed four-person evaluation panels are designed to include one person nominated by the relevant local authority and one person nominated by the relevant iwi.
This design for the evaluation panels will result in giving Maori an equivalent voice to the local authorities. Given that Maori make up only approximately 13% of the voting population of New Zealand (according to the latest NZ census) this gives them a much greater influence over the outcomes from any fast track applications above other ethnicities in New Zealand.
The proposal to have a mandatory position on the evaluation panels, solely based on ethnicity is nothing more than apartheid dressed up in a different disguise.
I do not think that our Prime Minister has read the attitude of the nation’s voters correctly, and in fact the coalition government’s failure to make their promised changes in the race based legislative mess left behind by the last Labour government, are a major reason why they are seeing very serious decrease in the levels of support from the electorate.
The PM and his coalition may have a plan and they may be focussed on executing that plan but if the plan is not the one that the electorate wants, it will only lead to defeat at the upcoming election.
Life in New Zealand has changed quite drastically over the last fifty odd years and pretending otherwise won’t fix it.
We see the population, families and friends more divided, more defensive, more willing to justify things they once would’ve questioned; arguing over ethnicity and ideology while real problems stack up around us: rising costs, broken systems, failing infrastructure, crime, and communities left behind.
Hard work is punished. Risk-taking is regulated to death. Success is resented. Dependency is rewarded.
In comparison our coalition government led by Christopher Luxon has done very little of what they promised on the campaign trail with many of the most important issues still to be dealt with.
Yes they did stop the Three Waters Bill, they have taken steps to rearrange the economy, they did cancel the race based Maori Health Authority but there are many more serious problems to be dealt with, which they seem to ignore.
The jury is still out on whether their actions in regard to the economy have had the desired results even though they have managed to lower the rate of inflation from the previous government’s record highs.
The main issue for the coalition is that none of their actions in relation to the economy are currently really being seen in the pockets of the workers who are still struggling to put a roof over their heads and food on the table.
Whilst they may have lowered the rate of inflation when the population is still finding it almost impossible to feed and house themselves, no government is going to see any good poll results.
On top of those issues around the costs of living, we see almost every time there is an announcement from government that we are facing more taxes (sorry I should call them levies) such as the latest suggested infrastructure funding through tolls, LNG levy etc.
In my opinion the only good news result that this coalition government can point to that comes with hard evidence to prove its success, is the change to the education system around the literacy and numeracy requirements in primary education with initial results showing dramatic improvements in learning outcomes.
To borrow a much used phrase; overall it looks to me like Mr Luxon may be “gone by Lunch Time”!
.svg){kind=logo}
By Andy Loader, Poke the Bear