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Greg Dixon’s Another Kind of Politics is a weekly column that appears on listener.co.nz on Friday mornings. If you enjoy a “serious laugh” - and complaining about politics and politicians - you’ll enjoy reading Greg’s latest grievances.
Congratulations America, you’ve just elected your first-ever convicted criminal as president. You must be very proud.
In the coming days it will no doubt become clearer why such a sizeable number of you decided a fraudster, serial liar, failed insurrectionist, racist, wannabe “dictator for a day” and, according to a civil court, rapist, was the best person for the job.
But here in New Zealand, or the Great State of Disbelief as I like to call it, we and our government, such as it is, will begin preparing for the worst — and it can only get worse for a tiny trading nation like us.
If Trump’s first term as president proved anything, it was that incoherent as he can be, he should be taken at his word. Which means that he will enact, as he said during his campaign, a minimum 10% tariff on all imports to the US, a move that can only have a major negative effect on an already struggling New Zealand, which, at least for now, exports around $8 billion of goods to the US each year.
It seems quite possible that “Getting New Zealand Back On Track”, as National promised at the election but has thus far not delivered, will become even more difficult. The Prime Minister, the out-of-touch multimillionaire Christopher Luxon, told RNZ this week: “It’s my job to work with every and any leader around the world.”
It will be interesting to see whether that’s possible with Trump given Luxon has repeatedly publicly named Trump’s bête noire, Barack Obama, as one of his political heroes. In the meantime, cheer up, there are much worse things than Donald Trump. For a start, there’s bubonic plague.
Burning down the House Rules
And still it smoulders. Like some ciggie a careless smoker hasn’t stubbed out, a foul reek continues rising from Associate Health Minister Casey Costello, her wacko tobacco policy and the question of how much influence Big Tobacco has on her, NZ First and this coalition government.
From the very beginning, the decision to cut excise on heated tobacco products by 50% — effectively giving a single Big Tobacco company, Philip Morris, a $216 million tax break — looked mighty dodgy.
And since cabinet made that questionable call in July, the sense of it being dodgy has only grown as Costello has blown smoke into the eyes of voters about what makes heated tobacco so special, culminating with her release early last month of what she claimed was “independent advice” in favour of its effectiveness in quitting smoking.
Outside smoking cessation experts immediately called bullshit on this so-called evidence, which it turned out might as well have been written on the back of a ciggie packet.
And now we learn this week, after 1News got access to internal emails, that the people paid by the taxpayer to provide Costello with advice, the Ministry of Health, thought her so-called evidence was bullshit, too.
In an email, chief adviser of epidemiology, Fiona Callaghan, wrote to colleagues that “it’s not so much that all of the studies [Costello cited on heated tobacco] are crap… It’s more that it is a small number of selective research, not up to date, and certainly don’t form any sort of robust evidence review and don’t represent current evidence.” One study, Callaghan pointed out, was even provided by Philip Morris.
It is when faced with hard or unpleasant truths that we learn the true nature of a politician. Costello’s response was utterly revealing: she launched an ad hominem attack on Callaghan and her colleagues — who, as public servants, cannot publicly respond — claiming “yet again, officials [are] undermining the Government’s harm-reduction approach to reducing smoking rates”. How? By pointing out when you’re full of shit?
Personally attacking public officials has long been considered against the house rules in New Zealand politics. But no more, apparently. Costello’s assault followed attacks by the PM (who was forced to apologise for it in the House), and his deputy, Winston Peters.
To deflect criticism from Costello’s cack-handed performance, they both, at separate times, set upon another Ministry of Health official, one who happens to be the sister-in-law of Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall, about a conflict of interest that the ministry, not the official, failed to declare to the allegedly snow-white Costello.
It has been a disgraceful display, but also useful. We can now see that this government is not only at war with officials, but with facts it doesn’t like.
In the meantime, I can’t wait to see what comes next in this government’s increasingly absurd “harm-reduction approach” to reducing smoking rates. How about “Costello Takes Up Smoking In Fight Against Smoking”?
Political question of the week?
If the Prime Minister, out-of-touch multimillionaire Christopher Luxon, confuses us voters with “customers”, as he seemed to do during an interview with RNZ this week, where do unsatisfied customers go for their money back?
Something wicked this way comes
Here’s a question for the leader of the Act party, the well-known Māori politician and Treaty of Waitangi scholar, David Seymour. Why, as a supporter of open democracy, did you attempt to hide the date you planned to introduce your unprincipled Treaty Principles Bill?
The proposed legislation, which critics say ignores history and seeks to destroy the country’s founding document, had been widely expected to be introduced into Parliament on November 18. Certainly, Seymour had not suggested otherwise.
Instead, the bill was introduced yesterday, something that would have come as a surprise to the public if the new date had not been leaked by the Waitangi Tribunal, something that Seymour had the cheek to suggest was a breach of trust.
Playing the old switcheroo with the dates looks like what it probably is: an attempt to defang a mass hīkoi planned against the bill, which is still expected to arrive at Parliament on the day it was originally to be introduced.
It seems likely the sleight of hand will have the opposite effect, and will simply inflame an already volatile situation, one we already know will drag on for another six months as this bill crawls through the select committee process.
And then what? The PM has continually said his party will not support the bill after the first reading. But if the tail can wag the dog on the date the bill was introduced, could it not also wag the dog on getting the bill passed into law?
Political quiz of the week
What is super cool influencer and associate health minister David Seymour promoting in this picture?
A/ Chocolate milk, a children’s drink.
B/ Rayban’s new “Zoot from the Muppets” sunglasses.
C/ Lacoste shirts in “Tumescent Pink”.
D/ Chicken wings.
