Bruce Bisset: Our chance to save New Zealand

Bruce Bisset.

Huzzah! We have a date! September 23 is Liberation Day, otherwise known as the general election when we finally - and, I hope, irrevocably - get rid of the grasping pestilence of neoliberalism.

And, frankly, other than replacing it with a warped theocratic dictatorship a la the US Trump administration, I don't care what comes next. Anything is better than another term under National.

Because they've stuffed - and are stuffing - this country up so badly in so many ways the only wonder is that the rah-rah brigade still blithely buy their empty rhetoric of a "better" New Zealand.

Meaning all the mindless muffins out there who give lip service to National's faults but still unwaveringly chant "But what have Labour/the Greens/NZ First got?" and beat that little piece of negative spin as if it actually had meaning or substance.

Instead, ask what have National got? Nothing by which to reasonably elect them or hold them to account, because all their policy is made on the hoof.

And we're paying the price with $100 billion extra debt, failing education and health and police and social services, a housing crisis of epic proportions and economic "growth" fuelled solely by immigration, not to mention a thousand environmental disasters turning us 99 per cent turgid brown.

That's without mentioning the "c" word. Though I can't think of another Western regime where half the Cabinet have committed "crimes" (political, if not literal) and retained their seats.

Besides, better for whom? The 1 per cent who now own half the country? Terrific.

Whereas the main challengers have oodles of detailed policy on every facet of government, carefully designed to make things fairer for all - but does anyone bother to read it?

No, it gets binned with one rendition of "What have they got" and swapped for a cryptic comparison of leaders - as if that were a credible guide.

But what they have, in essence, is the same as they always have: The hard job of picking up the pieces after another appalling right-wing rampage and reintroducing some sanity and care into the country's governance.

For which, excepting Micky Savage and possibly Norman Kirk, they will not be thanked. They'll do it anyway, because someone has to.

That said, I wish Labour and the Greens would up their intensity and fight fire with fire.

It's all very well playing team-bonding games and being the voices of reason, but this is the 21st century; politics is even more about the biggest voice making the brashest noise - as our American cousins have so dramatically proven.

But speaking of the cult of leaders, they do have some problems: Andrew Little and James Shaw are both "nice guys" you'd be happy to buy a car and some insurance off, but they struggle to cut and thrust effectively.

While Metiria Turei unfortunately elicits the worst combination of prejudices with her permanent canary-eating smile, and Annette King is too much old-guard. Even up against bean-counter Bill and She Who I Refuse To Name they're barely treading water when they should be surfing.

I'll still vote Labour/Green because they are a more-than-viable alternative, and we MUST change. But I'd even take Winnie as PM in a coalition government if it meant dumping the Nats. That's how dire things have got.

So take a moment, dear reader, this Waitangi Day - for however you regard it, it is our national day - to reflect on how great this country used to be and compare that to what we have now, and I'd hope you'll agree we need to change direction, fast.

Hold that resolve firm until September 23 - then make it happen.