Monday, November 13, 2017

We want our money back

It’s a shame the Consumer Guarantees Act doesn’t apply to politics. If it did, the country would be entitled to demand its money back. The governor-general could be petitioned to annul the election result and do it all again.

I say this because it’s becoming increasingly obvious that the new government was formed under false pretences. We were sold faulty goods, not fit for purpose.

This is not the fault of the Labour Party, although it was over-eager to do a deal with Winston Peters. Labour was conned, as were National and indeed the entire country. No one knew Peters was planning to sue key National Party figures, including Bill English, which meant the theatrical negotiations leading to the formation of the new government were a sham.

We can also blame a flawed system that allowed Peters, whose party wasn’t wanted by 93 percent of voters, to take control of the government formation process. Our constitutional arrangements generally serve us pretty well, but they let us down badly by not setting sensible rules for post-election negotiations.

Of course there’s little prospect of a fresh election, in the immediate future anyway (hold all bets in the longer term), but it’s a tantalising thought. I wouldn’t mind if it resulted in a Labour-Greens coalition, just as long as the process was fair, open and transparent.

The crucial thing is that Winston Peters should never again be allowed within a mile of Parliament. No government can have any credibility as long as Peters is part of it, and this one is ineradicably tainted by association with him. Labour and the country will have to endure three years of shame and humiliation unless someone pulls the pin.

2 comments:

Craig said...

I agree with you on most points. It staggers me that anybody votes for Peters after the various fiascoes he has been involved in. It seems to me that our election somewhat mirrors what happened in the US, enough people became bored or disenchanted with the vanilla candidate (National / Clinton), that they end up voting in a horror show (Trump / Peters). I do think you're giving Labour a little too much slack however, they advertised themselves as the caring more socially focused choice, but the eruption of High-School socialist nonsense ("Capitalism has failed!") which followed the election has shown them for what they are, a bunch a amateurs with no idea how to operate in the real world.

Unknown said...

Fiascos! How about National ministers over fratinising with the Chinese!! How about using the organz of govt to leak personal information regarding ordinary people who happen to disagree with them? Love you Karl, but you have to own the fact that more than half the country did NOT want the Nats back. As for Winston OF COURSE he is a rogue - our sort of rogue. He will keep Labour honest.