Kiwi reportedly killed in Ukraine, the rugby world reacts to Scott Robertson’s appointment and negotiations after teachers strike in the latest New Zealand Herald headlines. Video / NZ Herald
OPINION
There has been a coup. If you did not realise that the Government that we now have is not the one anybody voted for it is understandable. We switch off politics during national disasters.
The new Prime Minister has received wall-to-wall coverage of him in gumboots reassuring flood victims.The TV pictures distracted us from understanding that we don’t just have a new Prime Minister; we have a new government.
The policy re-set has become a total U-turn. Policies that we were assured last year were “critical” are now not needed.
Chris Hipkins’ Government has a completely different mission.
Climate change policies are no longer this generation’s nuclear moment. We were told to judge the last government on its progress to eliminate child poverty. Now we are told this government’s sole focus is the cost of living.
Jacinda Ardern’s resignation - which seemed inexplicable - is now understandable. Her transformational government has changed into Hipkins’ transactional government. It is almost as if the last five years never happened.
We do not have a presidential system. We have government by Cabinet answerable to caucus.
The decision to stage this legal coup must be the result of months of secret debate within the Labour Party. No wonder Ardern did not want to lead the dismantling of her policies.
The coup has caught everyone by surprise. Christopher Luxon greeted the new PM saying: “New leader, same policies”.
He could not have been more wrong.
The Greens too have been stunned. With no consultation, Green Party policies have been axed. James Shaw and Chlöe Swarbrick were in shock when on TV they defended their decision not to resign. Their claim that the Greens must be in government to have influence has no credibility.
Chloe Swarbrick, James Shaw and Golriz Ghahraman at a Green Party election results stand-up. Photo / Michael Craig
It is hard to exaggerate the magnitude of the change. Ardern’s government put the “Treaty at the heart of government”. Nothing in any of Hipkins’ statements indicates the Treaty is his priority.
Given the pass granted to others, it seems Rob Campbell is correct. Campbell says he was really sacked as Health NZ’s chairperson for his passionate support of co-governance, an issue Hipkins clearly wishes would go away.
The Government has not just U-turned, it has repudiated the policies it claimed were essential. We were told policies were “critical” less than 12 months ago. Now we are told, “there are actually better ways of achieving emissions reductions”.
Hipkins has agreed with Act and National that the Greens’ climate policies are expensive and ineffective. He has also adopted Act and National’s proposal to fund the cyclone recovery by axing policies that have little or no cost benefit.
It is not just Green activists who are furious. Labour activists share Ardern’s vision on climate change and of a country where no child grows up in poverty. They did not join the party to campaign for government with no vision except “bread and butter”.
Former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with Chris Hipkins shortly before the changeover. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Hipkins, doing whatever it takes to win re-election, will not motivate the activists.
Reassurances that the policies can be reinstated after re-election are not credible. Now it has been made a “multi-generational” project, no one will ever travel to Auckland airport by light rail. Policies once dropped are rarely restored.
While Hipkins has no mandate for any of his changes, the government he has replaced never had a mandate for its policies. The country elected Jacinda Ardern, not Labour. The country voted for Ardern hoping she would keep New Zealand free of Covid. Few voters had any idea what was in the Labour Party’s manifesto.
The Opposition should remember the advice of James Carville, Bill Clinton’s legendary campaign manager. “It’s the economy, stupid”.
What has not changed is Labour’s economic policy - borrow and spend. The savings Hipkins announced are not real. The PM has cancelled projects that have not yet started.
A focus on the cost of living is doomed to fail. The announced benefit increases will disappear into supermarket checkouts.
The cost of living is a symptom, not a cause. The cause is inflation.
The Reserve Bank Governor’s warning that government spending funded by borrowing is inflationary has been ignored. Further interest rate rises are inevitable.
Inflation is not coming down before the election. The teachers would not be striking if they thought inflation was under control.
The likelihood is by election day the country will have both a recession and inflation, stagflation.
The latest polls show that the electorate is very volatile.
Inflation is a government killer. From 1972 to 1984 we had governments that tried to address the cost of living not the cause. Nothing worked. If we had had MMP, then every three years there would have been a change in government.
Borrowing to compensate us for the cost of bread and butter is a policy bound to fail.
