Jay Kuten: Ardern's Government has a lot of work to do

The Pike River mine disaster: No accountability.

The PM, Jacinda Ardern, has invited us to keep her Government accountable, a welcome reminder of our civic duty. In undertaking this obligation, it's necessary to provide context, bases for comparison in terms of the achievements and failings of past governments, led by either National or Labour.

At this outset, let's acknowledge the immediate evidence of commitment to regional prosperity in the announcement of $6 million for Whanganui's port and rail. The regions need the revitalisation offered by government investment stimulating further private enterprise to create more jobs. That's particularly true of our own region following the misguided centralisation of services by the last government that cost us jobs in DoC, transport, and the courts.

Previous governments, especially the last one, wrong-headedly decided to create an over-bloated metropolis of Auckland — with its attendant traffic, housing crisis, and crime — at the expense of the regions. They chased the will-of-the-wisp spectre of world-stage competition, while hollowing out what makes New Zealand unique, its hinterlands, their beauties, and our open-hearted people.

Any assessment of Ms Ardern's Government's achievements and aspirations must confront the fact that the bar has been set low by the past Government of National Party and its MPs. Former PM John Key is simply lucky to have left just before his serial hair-pulling of young women would have brought scrutiny from #MeToo and #Time's Up. His chosen successor, Bill English, is leaving to the usual paeans for his work during the near-meltdown of global finance in 2007-08. Forgotten is the fact of his mishandling of the South Canterbury Finance debacle that cost $2 billion to taxpayers.

The contest for leadership of the National Party has been one of the bland hoping to lead the blind. The five assembled needed only two more, Gerry Brownlee, say, or even Paula Bennett, to make up the full complement of Seven Dwarfs. Bennett held on to her perch as deputy PM and its perks for dear life. Judith Collins had a makeover to help humanise her. It's to make us forget her Chinese tea-cup and email scandals, but it doesn't hide the fact of her favourite book choice, Gone With The Wind, a faux nostalgia of the pre-civil-war US south that glorifies slavery. Mark Mitchell hoped to out-bully her, along with his plans for Making New Zealand's Wars Profitable.

Two young fogies, Amy Adams and Simon Bridges, competed for the title of Junior Smiling Assassin. Meanwhile, Steven Joyce used his deep baritone and serious visage to persuade us that, but for teachers, Novopay would work just fine. Is it fixed yet? One thing that ain't is Christchurch. The 2500 claims still pending after seven years are indebted significantly to the speedy work of Gerry Brownlee, busily barging through airport security.

Personalities are one thing, policies another. Having played Robin Hood in reverse, increasing GST on the poor, to give tax breaks to the rich, the last government did its best to undermine education with ill-conceived tests that actually deter learning.
The last Government's practice of business first and only led to the deterioration of safety protections, resulting in the Pike River mine disaster.

Failure to treat this as a crime scene meant no accountability. A stonewalling of the public's right to know was the resistance to looking at the Afghanistan incident that beclouds our SAS troops still.

And there's hiding from the facts on mental health, making its problems intractable. The list goes on, alas. Let's ignore the environment, river pollution, effects of global warming. Ignorance of the facts is no sin, but wilful, committed ignorance prevents constructive change, and that is shameful.

Given that baseline, the new Government can hardly miss looking good by comparison. But looks, cosmetics — the proverbial lipstick on the proverbial pig — won't cut it. In the next instalment, I'll be looking beyond the promises to the progress — or not — of Jacinda Ardern's Government. I do wish them well, because there's a lot of work to be done.

Jay Kuten

Jay Kuten is an American-trained forensic psychiatrist who emigrated to New Zealand for the fly fishing. He spent 40 years comforting the afflicted and intends to spend the rest afflicting the comfortable.