It appears that Jacinda-mania is over and that media have finally realised the princess has no answers.
If there ever was a honeymoon it is well over now as the government lurches from one crisis after another and almost all are self inflicted.
Stacey Kirk is the latest to put down the Kool-Aid sippy cup: Quote:
Consensus government in action, or a bloody awful mess?
It’s difficult to characterise the past week as anything but the latter and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern may be worried about whether she’ll have a Government to come back to when she returns from maternity leave.
Her first born is officially due today, and what is surely a time of nervous excitement for the expanding First Family will carry an added layer of anxiety.
Her MPs don’t exactly make it easy for her. End quote.
That is because they are mostly shiftless, stupid and stumbling. Quote:
The chickens have come home to roost for the Government this week, with the Opposition enjoying what’s likely to be far too many “told you so” moments for Ardern’s liking.
And if this week has illustrated anything it’s what lies at the beating heart of any coalition-related controversy – Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has been at the centre of everything.
That goes to the heart of a strategy the National Party developed at the start of the year during its intensive two-day caucus strategy meeting: don’t target Peters, there’s simply no need.
And to a certain extent, National’s strategy of divide and conquer gained some abstract success this week too. End quote.
Actually, Winston Peters isn’t at the centre of everything. All of the government’s problems are centred on inept Labour ministers. Quote:
It began with a hastily-arranged press conference by Justice Minister Andrew Little, to reveal that his grand plan to repeal the three strikes legislation had been shot out of the sky.
He’d spent the previous week giving interviews about his plans to take it to Cabinet and push forward – the only issue was, he did not have the numbers to do so. More embarrassingly for Little, Peters decided to wait until the 11th hour to let him know.
Total humiliation awaits any member of Cabinet who threatens to step outside the bounds of MMP and attempt a “first past the post”-style power play to get ahead of public opinion – that’s what Little got and really, he should have expected it. End quote.
It was poor coalition management from Andrew Little, and Jacinda Ardern who was more concerned about travel arrangements from Auckland to Hamilton for some more soft media ahead of her birth. Quote:
When the PM comes back in six weeks saying “hey guys, what did I miss?” her officials may be looking sideways.
“Perhaps you’d better sit down for this one, Prime Minister.” End quote.
I don’t think things are going to get better for this government. Actually, much, much worse. The David Clark story has much, much more to come, and Kelvin Davis isn’t out of the woods either.