Mike Hosking says Jaciinda Ardern lacks a spine: Quote:

I assume no one is missing the irony that poor old Clare Curran could see what needed to be done, but her boss once again couldn’t.

And because of that it raises once again the question as to just what, in Ardern’s mind, you have to do to get sacked.   

She, of course, claims Curran had already been sacked as a Cabinet minister. But we know differently.

Ardern seems to be keen to play with words, Curran was already gone on Friday when she was busy on this radio station giving no indication whatsoever that that was the case.

Oh there was an excuse, some rationale about family members and party officials being told.

But that’s the stuff that looks manipulative and dodgy. It’s the stuff that’s never quite as clean and clear as it needs to be. End quote.

Sneaky and furtive as her ex-minister. Quote:

Now, in her mind Ardern might well still be sitting there this morning having convinced herself she is right, and we are all wrong. And that some sort of touchy-feely approach to discipline is the modern way.

But it doesn’t add up. You can’t, on one hand, stand there talking about the high standards you expect of your ministers, while on the other hand defending a serial offender and refusing to sack them and offering up excuses about having a bad day at the office.

The two don’t gel.

So at least Curran has done the right thing, but in doing so has highlighted how Ardern didn’t.

And that’s before we get to Meka Whaitiri. If it’s true what Stuart Nash told us last Wednesday that she denies it, it’s a “she said, she said” sort of affair. And that is a mess that doesn’t easily get resolved.

And goes further to highlight that, one, it’s the Labour Party that is letting the coalition down. And Ardern’s other excuse that “this is government” and “it’s what happens in government” equally doesn’t wash, given her partners seemingly have nothing like the same trouble Labour has.

And two, both of those in trouble are women in a Cabinet Ardern was desperate to make 50/50 gender-wise and has already fallen short, before she losses potentially two of them.

And three, this increasingly looks like a party that had no expectation of government, has put all hands to the pump, and too many of those hands don’t know what they’re doing. End quote.

They haven’t a clue. They are led by a clueless prime minister. Quote:

And that is before you get to Winston Peters, who increasingly looks like an experienced settled, if not, ever so slightly Machiavellian sort of operator. He’s increasingly offering policy influence and direction for the Government without seemingly keeping the Prime Minister in the loop. End quote.

Winston is actually doing a good job.  Quote:

And all of this was put in to spectacular context on Friday with Curran’s emotional resignation, he talked of her time in Cabinet, the achievements, the areas she worked on.

All of which would have been fine if it encompassed five or six years of service, but in reality it’s not even one.

These guys have just arrived last week, and look how loose the wheels are already. End quote.

Very loose and in danger of falling off. Labour’s problem is two fold. First their leader is an emotional wreck who seems to want to govern on feelz. Just the other day she was saying being criticised for her $80,000 jaunt to Nauru hurt deeply. The second issue they have is their exceedingly shallow talent pool. It is so shallow you could wade through it and not even get close to wetting the hem of your trousers.

Melissa Lee has got her scalp. Clare Curran, The Minister of uhms and ahhs has…ahhh…uhmm…resign. The NZ Herald reports:  Quote:

Under-fire Clare Curran has quit as a minister.

She becomes the first casualty of the coalition government.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in a radio interview with Newstalk ZB recorded at 8am this morning that Curran’s job was safe.

 

But it has now emerged the errant minister told Ardern last night that she would quit – and Ardern accepted her resignation.

“Clare Curran contacted me last night to confirm her wish to resign as a minister and I accepted that resignation,” Ardern said today.

“Clare has come to the view the issues currently surrounding her are causing an unacceptable distraction for the Government and immense pressure on her personally.

“I agree with her assessment that resigning is the best course of action for the Government and for her.”

Just this morning Ardern had said Curran’s job was safe. End quote.

Did she resign via Gmail?

Ardern is going to have plenty of questions to answer given her stupid comments this morning. She’s now confirmed that Curran offered to resigned last night so what promoted this fool of a prime minister to make that statement this morning.

The PM endorsed her this morning and now she’s gone? What happened?

Jacinda Ardern is showing a distinct and profound lack of judgment.

Who would ever have thought that Melissa Lee would claim the first scalp.

Digital image: Technomage

Mike Hosking doesn’t believe a word Phil Twyford or the government says on Kiwbuild: Quote:

The Government has pledged to build 100,000 homes over a decade, which averages out at 10,000 per year.

The KiwiBuild plan includes 1000 homes in the first year.

So far we’re only at 18, quite a few short of that promised 1000.

But what no-one is pointing out here, and it needs to be because this is the Government’s biggest noise and they’ve promised to fix the housing market with this piece of snake oil, is that the 982 that are missing out of year one go into year two.

Which then means into election year they’ll likely be hundreds short – and they’ll be busy promising more smoke and mirrors if only you re-elect them.

It is possible they’ll have another 12 ready by Christmas, but even at 30 in one year it’s a pretty pathetic start to what is supposed to be one of the biggest infrastructure programmes this country has ever seen.  End quote.

It is worse than that. Every single one of these so-called Kiwibuild houses, were started or consented under a National government. Furthermore, and this is something media seem rather lax on, Labour promised 100,000 extra houses over and above that which the private sector was already producing. All Kiwibuild homes claimed by Twyford thus far have not been extra houses. It is a fraud, a sham, a lie even that these are extra houses. Quote:

No wonder Housing Minister Phil Twyford is bulldozing the Unitary Plan in Auckland and taking it over himself. But an even more important aspect that was missed, and one mentioned in passing once, was the developer – who doesn’t know whether he’ll break even on the project.

And in that is the time bomb.

These homes, 12 at $579,000 and six at $649,000, are at the upper end of the so-called affordable range the Government has invented.

We all know, of course, given we have seen the numbers, they’re not affordable and a very small percentage of people who are new to the market have the deposit or the income to actually afford them.

But if the developer is not breaking even you know what happens next. Either he’s not back for more, or the price of the so-called affordable house is going up. And it’s already gone up $50,000 in the time it took to announce the policy and actually produce the first houses.

And if he’s not back that’s a supply issue, in an industry we are already critically short in.
And if he is back but the cost rises, and let’s be honest we all know the cost is rising, because we have seen those numbers too.  End quote.

It is a fraud on the electorate…and we are paying for it. Quote:

Labour costs are up because this Government is handing out pay rises left, right, and centre. And building costs rise because the market on product is broken, if not stacked.

So 18 homes in … just 99,982 to go over the next decade.

And already we have signs of what a house of cards this whole thing really is. End quote.

A house of cards, built on quicksand.