This morning I finally got around to watching Don and Hone on Close Up. I did so in the context of everything else that these two got up to last week (comparisons to Hitler, calling each other racists, re-writing the Treaty, eulogies for Osama, subsequently withdrawn).
Fundamentally I felt sad watching them together as the debate went back down the divisive approach to race relations. There is so much for New Zealanders to be focused on now, re-hashing this debate is just not it. Of course we need to keep working on race relations in NZ, but the Brash/Harawira approach is not it, and it is not where New Zealanders are at.
The day after the programme I travelled through South Taranaki with Phil Goff and our candidate up there Hamish McDouall. We talked with people in small towns like Manaia about their struggles to make ends meet, to get jobs, their desire for apprenticeships for the young people in town and for better funding for the school. We went on to Hawera where we met business people who were working hard to climb out of the recession, social service providers hit by government funding cuts to anti-violence programmes which are more stretched than ever. We heard about the pensioner who had not eaten for two days so she had enough money to pay her bills.
Don and Hone will no doubt try and out extreme each other, pump up the rhetoric, and scratch about for votes to give them an extra MP or two. In terms of the campaign, we will be focusing on dealing with the issues we heard in South Taranaki. Giving people a vision and a plan. Getting government priorities in line with people’s priorities. That’s a plan that will give New Zealanders some hope that they will get a fair go, an economy that works for everyone, a job, and a good future for them and their families.
Posted in Hone Harawira, Don Brash and ACT. |
Key Backs Hide is the headline of the story on the NZ Herald website.
Prime Minister John Key says ACT leader Rodney Hide has shown good judgment and has his full support following the resignation of disgraced MP David Garrett from the party.
The ridiculous thing about that statement is that not even Rodney Hide thinks he has shown good judgement here. He said as much at his press conference. The reality is that Rodney is the person who decided that it was ok for Garrett to be the Sensible Sentencing Trust’s person in the ACT Caucus despite knowing of his conviction and his bizarre and creepy plot. Rodney was the one who was happy for it not to become public. Rodney was the one who made him law and order spokesperson. Good judgement is in short supply in this case.
Rodney Hide and ACT’s days are numbered. John Key knows that, but he needs Hide to keep his government going. Its a messy place to be.
Posted in David Garrett, Rodney Hide, John Key and ACT. |
I don’t particularly want to give further oxygen to the views of David Garrett which I find, as is often the case, extreme and appalling. But I could not resist the comment from former ACT MP Deborah Coddington on Facebook this morning. She was responding to the wonderful David Slack’s status update ” The ACT MPs would work much better as a big brother house.” Deborah said
The Act MPs would work much better if they found some humans to stand.
Continuing in the fine tradition of ACT individualism which saw almost the entire caucus contest the leadership when Richard Prebble resigned!
One thing I can say about Deborah when she was an MP is that she did clearly espouse what I understood to be ACT principles- love them or hate them. Not so sure about their more recent recruits.
Posted in ACT. |
Colin James has an interesting column on the Hone Harawira saga in the Dom Post today (not on-line yet) that picks up the theme discussed here before of the potential impact of the loose coalition management that has marked the Key administration. While noting that at the moment John Key seems to have time and space to deal with unstable coalition partners, Colin says
But in politics sideshows sometimes rewrite the main act. Too many distractions and slips eventually become a defining characteristic. That is the spectre for Key’s loose government and most unusual three-way shack-up. To keep his three-legged runners synchronised will need tough-minded management, sooner rather than later. That is the real issue with Harawira. It’s a Key issue.
This is the reflective and intellectual equivalent of Michael Laws’ call for Helen to come back on Sunday! There is absolutely no sign that the need for that management is understood in the Beehive, nor exactly where it might come from.
Tough management also can not be substituted for straight out undermining of one’s partners either. The persistent rumour around Parliament is that the NZ Herald front page story on Rodney Hide paying back the costs of his trip to Hawaii came direct from a senior National figure. This sort of approach is at odds with John Key’s sunny public disposition and ‘relaxed” approach to being told he is not doing anything. In the end consistent, fair and firm is the way to go with coalition partners less it all unravel badly.
Posted in Politics, coalition management and ACT. |
John Armstrong in this morning’s Herald has given his verdict on the Maori seats imbroglio. Essentially he says this was not a dispute that was going to develop into a crisis but it is an example of slack coalition management. I disagree with John’s analysis of the gravity of the situation, but I found one comment he made particularly interesting
But the National Cabinet was never going to reverse its April decision ruling out Maori seats and suddenly endorse the idea.
Really? Why then was John Key negotiating with the Maori Party over a possible deal? I am quite convinced from everything I have heard from Pita Sharples, Hone Harawira and others that they thought they were negotiating in good faith with Key about a deal. Further, that would seem to be the reason that Key went to see Hide in June.
Managing coalition arrangements is tough stuff. I played a minor part in managing theses relationships in my time as an Advisor in Helen Clark’s office. It takes enormous energy and time, a fair degree of flexibility, but above all bucket loads of goodwill and good faith. If John Armstrong is correct and National really did never have any intention of changing its position then this episode will have done far more damage to the long term stability of this government than he thinks.
Posted in ACT, Maori Party and Auckland. |
