If the Rain Comes

We're going to need a bigger boat, and a different government.

If the rain comes they run and hide their heads.
They might as well be dead,
If the rain comes, if the rain comes…

Can you hear me that when it rains and shines,
It's just a state of mind,
Can you hear me, can you hear me?

Song: Lennon-McCartney

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It’s been quite a week for Dunedin and the bottom part of the South Island. This time seven days ago, 35,000 people, a massive turnout from the region, were marching in the streets over the government’s decision to deprioritise their new Hospital, reneging on the promise they made to deliver it.

Now many of those streets are flooded, and heavy rain has caused a state of emergency. You’ve seen the pictures; if you’re in the affected area, I hope you’re safe, warm, and dry. Terrible conditions with damage to homes and road closures leaving motorists stranded. Yesterday was Dunedin’s “wettest day in over a century”.

Flooding on Bay View Road in South Dunedin. Photo: Iain McGregor/The Press.

Hopefully, the rains will ease today, but it’s going to be a long clean-up for those with water-damaged homes and property. Roads will remain out of action as slips are cleared and preventative work is undertaken to make things safe—at least until the next big one.

These weather emergencies seem to be happening more frequently; each year, we see communities facing similar cleanups, having to repair the damage to homes, businesses, roads, and farms.

I’m not claiming that this particular event is down to climate change, but the reality is we’re seeing more frequent, extreme weather conditions, and you don’t have to look at graphs or believe scientists to appreciate that - you can simply open your eyes. Whether it is temperature extremes, cyclones or simply the weather, it’s not what it used to be. Certainly not as it was when I grew up, and it’s getting worse.

Each time this happens, politicians and TV cameras arrive to show they are there for the community, standing with them, praising the work of emergency services and the community's spirit. Then, a few days later, they leave, the story drops off the TV screens, and the locals are left with long, costly cleanups.

Mind you, the response from the country’s leader was a bit more relaxed this time. Where we might have seen Jacinda or Chippy comforting people, preparing food, or dressed in high-vis with a sympathetic expression, Christopher Luxon had a prior engagement.

I must confess I’m not familiar with the Kiwi Indian Hall of Fame Awards ceremony. I’m sure it’s a fabulous occasion, and it would have been a shame if they had been deprived of the company of the PM and his good wife - but maybe, just maybe, it was more important for him to be seen on the ground helping down south?

That’s what leaders do. They turn up in their gumboots and hard hats, say comforting words, and give someone a hug—and maybe that boosts the morale of those doing it tough, even if it is largely symbolic.

As it is, Dunedin barely featured in the Prime Minister’s social media posts, let alone altered his travel plans. Over recent days he, or one of his team of seven, has tweeted:

• Criticism of Iran’s attack on Israel - that killed no Israelis so far as I’m aware, while not saying a word about Israel’s invasion of Lebanon where the aggressor state - without question Israel, is murdering and maiming civilians on a second front, as they contemplate opening a third front in Iran.

• Wishing NZ’s Jewish community a Happy New Year, “as you celebrate Rosh Hashanah. Shana Tova!”

• Promoting his FamilyBoost, childcare policy. When they talked about tax cuts, they measured time in fortnights to make it sound like it was twice as much. In his tweet, the PM boasts of the amount that parents can get not weekly, fortnightly, or even monthly - but every three months!

It wasn’t until yesterday afternoon that he mentioned events in Otago and Southland, saying he was thinking of the communities and urging them to follow the advice from emergency services.

Emmie replied: “Oh look, here comes Captain Hindsight around 24 hours late & giving ‘advice’ to adults who would be doing exactly that because they're not cretins to need to be told.”

Simon pointed out, “Haven’t you stopped funding for the National Resilience Plan ($6b) and diverted funding from the Climate Emergency Response Fund ($1.5b) to Roads of National Significance?”

Cindy said simply, “Finally! How come it took so long for you to wake up to the fact Dunedin’s underwater?”

I also enjoyed Susan’s suggestion, echoing President Trump’s behaviour in Puerto Rico: “Aren't you on the ball? Next, you'll be handing out kitchen rolls. #worstPMever”

To be fair to the Prime Minister, he’s not averse to going on-site and cosplaying as someone more useful. On Wednesday, he tweeted about visiting a team in New Plymouth, saying he “Enjoyed getting on the tools and learning a thing or two!”

For some unexplained reason, he came dressed as a decades-old douchebag meme:

Christoper Luxon. Image: https://x.com/chrisluxonmp

It’s all very well to praise the resilience of residents or the emergency services as being the “gold standard,” as Mark Mitchell said on last night’s 1 News. The simple reality is that our infrastructure is not up to standard for the challenges ahead.

The problem is, now that Nicola Willis has emptied the coffers for her tax cuts, what happens the next time there is a major weather event, an earthquake, or simply infrastructure that fails too easily and too often?

For goodness sake, we can’t even process human waste properly, something humans have been managing for centuries. You might have seen an article on increased stench levels in the Hutt due to a fire at the local processing plant. You’ve got to feel for the residents, Chris Bishop is their MP, and the air smells like crap - literally.

So, do we have a serious conversation about the climate-related changes ahead and the fact that our infrastructure is tired and not up to it? The last government recognised the need to address climate change, but their steps, small as they were, have been backtracked by the coalition.

The previous government set up reserve funds to respond to the increasing number of rainy day emergencies - but the coalition got rid of that too. Blowing the lot on election bribes we couldn’t afford and leaving no capacity to deal with the next disaster. At best, you could describe it as negligent.

So what is their plan? Just ignore things and pretend everything is just fine?

Jone has become a cartoon villain, a Trump-like figure, spouting absolute nonsense and attacking those who point out the rising water in the room

That’s how our government responds to criticism when people say enough - my god, this is actually serious. They paint the people standing up for the planet as extreme lunatics who are anti-everything for no reason at all. Like this little beauty from Shane Jones the other day:

If it’s good enough to label those defending themselves and the few rights and lands they have left in Palestine as terrorists, then why not do the same with those who are trying to protect the planet for future generations?

How do you do this? Easy: Make them the enemy—not of energy companies, who make massive profits propelling the globe towards climate armageddon, but of regular, everyday Kiwis who need the jobs those industries provide.

And people will buy that garbage.

Just as some people became so deluded over our Covid response that they convinced themselves the former government was some insidious monster out to control their lives rather than actually trying to save them, so too, no doubt, people believe that those who seek to take action to minimise the effect of climate change are there to wreck their fun.

For what? Do they imagine it’s fun for protestors to chain themselves to something or bob about in the harbour in a tiny craft in the path of an enormous ship? Yes, some of the actions are inconvenient, like when protesters sit down or even glue themselves to a motorway - although not as inconvenient as a planet which no longer supports human life as it currently does.

Life as we know it on Earth is at risk, and for once more plants are not a good sign. As highlighted in this article yesterday from the Guardian, “Plant cover across the Antarctic peninsula has soared more than tenfold over the last few decades, as the climate crisis heats up the icy continent.”

Such scenes are not without precedent, although there weren’t too many people around to see them last time. “Trees were growing at the south pole a few million years ago, when the planet last had as much CO₂ in the atmosphere as it does today.”

We are all temporary visitors on this planet. None of us get to stick around long-term. So, it’s a bit of a dick move to trash the place and leave it inhospitable for those who come after us.

We look up at the same stars our ancestors did thousands of years ago, the same ones that our descendants will look up at. What sort of conditions will they find the place in, and what will they think of us for what we have done?

Whether it is the long-term survival of human life on earth or an honest conversation about the need to greatly improve our infrastructure for the demands of the present and the near future, one thing is clear…

This coalition must go, and the sooner, the better. They have rolled back every preventative measure and even the money put aside for a rainy day.

Image: NZ First/BeFunky.

No matter how you look at it, those tax cuts were wildly inappropriate. We couldn’t afford them, and there were more important priorities for that money, especially in Health. They’ve left nothing in reserve to help the next community impacted like this.

Meanwhile, Shane Jones berates the protestors for highlighting the truth, and the Prime Minister puts on a tux for an awards ceremony.

Let’s not elect these people again - our communities and our mokopuna deserve so much better.

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From the Beatles.com…

“Rain” is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, credited to Lennon-McCartney and first released in June 1966 as the B-side of the "Paperback Writer" single. Both songs were recorded during the sessions for the album Revolver though neither appears on that album.

Written by John Lennon, "Rain" has been called the Beatles' finest B-side, noted for its slowed-down rhythm track and backwards vocals, both of which were a hint of things to come on Revolver, released two months later.