Distractions and Inaction.
Ignore the infrastructure, look over there - gangs, teens, be afraid!
Fancy, a fast car
A bag full of loot
I can nearly guarantee
You'll end up with the boot
The Prime Minister arrived home, perhaps a bit surprised, maybe even secretly a little pleased at the diversion, to find the country falling apart. Things going more badly that even his c-list, self back-slapping, trip that had turned stomachs rather than enticed hearts and minds.
Not only did the bloody plane not work but the power grid was falling over, literally, the Interislander Aretere had decided the water was too cold and headed for the beach. Nothing could be relied on. He couldn’t even go along to the rugby and support the team he identified with, even the mighty Crusaders needed a rebuild.
So what did he do? Did he keep a low profile like Nicola Willis has through much of this, leaving it to the likes of Simeon Brown to front things? Or did he face things head on, man up, acknowledge the situation and reassure a concerned public?
Did he bollocks.
Rather than reassurance he decided to turn up the fear dial, the last resort of Tory parties from ages ago. If you can’t blame the Labour party, and that’s a bit tricky when you obviously cancelled the Ferry contract they’d already sorted, then what’s left? Pump up the fear, make the public think they’re going to die in their beds if you’re not there to protect them?
And so it was that Big Chief Luxon was accompanied on stage by Mark Mitchell and Karen Chhour for a Press Conference to make the public forget all about ferries and power cuts by announcing a new sentencing category for youth offenders, a pilot programme for a military-style academy and new police officers for Auckland CBD.
“What I would say to you is - be afraid.”
Readers of a nervous disposition should understand that the lineup of ministers described is not the scary part of this story. Although watching the three of them speak yesterday I was struck by a terrifying realisation that these people were running things and making decisions.
So what did we get? Not new ferries, they’d already rolled over on that and announced they’d found a few billion squirrelled away down the back of the couch for a rainy day, They’d seen the light and by complete coincidence would now be buying ferries after all, it might just cost a bit more than Labour’s plan, on account of all the flip flops.
No, we got the same old stale rhetoric about gangs and marauding teenagers. About the need to lock up gang members longer and lock up the teens too - send them to boot camp. Lock everybody up, well, not National supporters obviously.
The same old failed policies they’ve announced time and again, rolled out once more simply to take the public’s mind off the fact that the country is falling apart.
Labour’s children’s spokeswoman Willow-Jean Prime said, “Forcing these kinds of children into boot camps is cruel and takes our youth rehabilitative system backwards.
To spend more than $5m on a pilot for 10 kids, when we’re in dire need of more youth aid officers and social workers, is simply another example of the Government making the wrong choices yet again.”
Green Party spokeswoman for justice Tamatha Paul said, “It’s well established that when young people are supported with the basics, like decent housing and nutritious kai, and have opportunities to learn and contribute to their communities, it’s less likely they will turn to crime.
Throwing these kids into boot camps is inexcusably shallow politics, and if anything it’s likely to increase reoffending.”
Is that the way things are now, as demonstrated by this ferry? Where only the squeakiest of squeaky wheels gets any attention?
Where the government will defund things, like the replacement ferries, and only when something catastrophically fails and there is a public outcry will they do what was obviously needed in the first place?
Because that’s exactly how we end up with such failing infrastructure in the first place. By doing the bare minimum we can get away with and kicking the can down the road. You can see this in the one major area of infrastructure spending National supports - filling in potholes.
People complained that Labour aimed too high and didn’t reach the lofty goals they set themselves. For example they built over ten thousand state houses, but not the hundred thousand Kiwibuild ones promised.
But at least they tried to do things and got part of the way there rather than doing nothing at all. Which is what this coalition is doing with infrastructure, unless it involves roads.
So the infrastructure deficit gets larger as pylons fall over and ferries crash - neither of which is supposed to happen. To that you can add all of the water infrastructure which is falling apart, especially in places like Wellington, or in Auckland where our beaches can’t be used because of the stuff that spills into our harbour.
Labour even came up with a plan to sort out the water infrastructure, Three Waters. But instead of getting on board and delivering the improvements needed the coalition parties decided they could score votes by scaring people into thinking it was an attack on democracy, and on white privilege, simply to have a place at the table for Māori.
What were they so afraid of? Did they think Tangata Whenua were going to steal the sewerage pipes? They just want fresh water like everyone else and don’t want to see a precious taonga like our water sold off to foreign interests.
Oh. I think I see the problem.
Can we stop pretending theses guys are the responsible ones? Cancelling the other team’s ferry order, saying you can’t afford it, then magically coming up with money for new ships after a disaster that could’ve ended so much worse. That’s not governing responsibly it’s a knee jerk response to public pressure and a complete vacuum of leadership.
If that is how this coalition intends to govern, by responding to squeaky wheels, then that’s a pretty big incentive to the public to put pressure on them until they cave in and do what they should have done in the first place.
It might also encourage a few Public Sector CEOs to crash their services spectacularly too, if they can’t get the funding they need. Figuratively of course. To be fair they might not have much choice.
With all of these funding cuts a broken down ferry run aground is going to be the tip of the iceberg. The way expenditure is being cut we’ll look back on the Key years with human waste running down the walls of Middlemore Hospital as the good old days.
Still at least the coalition has shown there’s something we can do. Make enough noise, put enough pressure on these guys, and they’ll fold - like one of Chris Bishop’s suits.
There are quite a few not very good songs with distraction in the title, but I really like this one, a rare discovery.
@vebatevic on Twitter pointed out the following exchange:
Karen Chhour: My job is to stop abuse in care.
Jack Tame: How do we stop abuse happening in boot camps?
Karen Chhour: To be fair, that's not the point of boot camps.
A great read Nick, saying it as it is. Nzer's have been duped again voting for parties that misinform the public, with slogans and right wing, think tank rhetoric and then conveniantly have the right wing media amplify their nonsense.