Credit: SB
Newshub came up with this article at the weekend, and I am really surprised by it. The fact that the media are even contemplating that this might be a one-term government nine months in is a death knell of epic proportions. At no stage in the Bolger, Clark or Key governments was there even a hint that they might only last one term. Each one was expected to last at least two terms and, as often happens in New Zealand, quite possibly three. If the media are already saying that this might be a one-term government, then so it will be. If it lasts until 2020. Quote:
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says if her Government is voted out after a single term, it’ll be because they failed to bring New Zealanders around to their way of thinking. End quote.
Actually, that is all you need to know. There is no question of taking into account the wishes of the voters. They have to brainwash people, and they may not have enough time to do it. What an arrogant attitude. But this government do arrogance in spades, even though they have only been in power for nine months. God help us if they were to last for nine years. Quote:
Though the Labour-NZ First coalition (with support from the Greens) has kept its nose ahead in the polls, the public doesn’t appear to be so keen on the Government’s plan to reduce the prison population. A poll earlier this month found two-thirds of voters back the three-strikes law, including a majority of NZ First and Labour voters.
Ms Ardern acknowledged the Government may be getting ahead of public opinion on this issue.
“The biggest obstacle we have at the moment is making sure that we bring the New Zealand public with us. You know, this is a conversation we need to have together. End quote.
Another conversation. The proposed scrapping of the ‘three strikes’ law is a typical case of ideology over practicality. It sounds nice to have fewer people in prison for less time, but the voting public want to be kept safe. Watch Andrew Little continue to push this one ahead. He will do this at the peril of losing the voters, but that doesn’t matter. His ideology says it must be done, and ideology is everything to this government. Quote:
[Ardern] says it’ll take much more than criminal justice reforms to achieve that, including “an improved youth justice system, more investment in education, better transition services, stopping young people becoming NEETS, ‘not in employment, education or training’, doing more around drug and alcohol issues and actually having rehabilitation that works”.
And she wants the public on-side with any changes the Government does implement. End quote.
Just as she wants business to be onside while she destroys whole sectors of it! The last government were making inroads into improving young people’s lives, but guess what? All of that has been stopped because it did not fit ideologically with Labour’s programme. Quote:
“If you end up being a one-term Government as a consequence of changes you’ve made, you probably haven’t brought people on that journey, and the pitch that we’re making, the conversation we need to have, is to – with New Zealand, is when we have a static crime rate – one actually that we want to bring down – but when we have a static crime rate but an ever increasing prison population, is that the kind of country we want to be?” End quote.
Now let me just apply a tiny bit of mathematics to that statement. A static crime rate and an increasing prison population mean an increasing general population. It is a shame we are importing criminals, but that is what is going on. If we want to reduce the prison population, how about we start by importing only people of good character? How about deporting those who do not have citizenship yet but have broken the law? That would start to reduce the prison population without having to let scumbags back out on to the street. Nobody wants that, except Labour.
But my real purpose in writing this article is this. The media and the prime minister are already talking about this being a one-term government. That is unprecedented. If we are already talking about it just nine months in, I think it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy before long.