Politics
Outrageous weirdness
by Jane Clifton
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But does he have a point? It is a bit undignified, the way we slag Australia – specially given that Australia couldn’t give a wombat’s bum what we think of it. We do get off in a slightly unwholesome way at the idea that, although we are puny and globally insignificant, the most powerful man in the world is a bit of a chump. Maybe to outside eyes we do suffer from the geographical equivalent of short-man syndrome.
But you can’t stop the expression of popular opinion. Most New Zealanders are beside themselves at the carnage in Iraq, and they blame our senior allies for its severity. The vigour of anti-American and Australian sentiment is probably down to the fact that, for political and diplomatic reasons, most of our MPs mute their own anti-American and Australian views. Both pro- and anti-Bush people are woefully under-represented in this country.
Still, at least the face-grindingly poor now have representatives fighting over them. Ingeniously ensuring vivid illustration of his speech, Key named a mean street in Owairaka that easily survived media scrutiny to become an emblem for social-policy failure. Never again should we tutt at those crimelord-patrolled council estates portrayed in English crime dramas. The only difference is, we haven’t made our ghettos out of tower blocks.
However, National’s policy larder is not exactly overstocked. After commandeering all this attention, and envoking the Wellesian vision of Owairaka Morlocks rising up to eat the middle-class Eloi, Key needs to keep the momentum going, to back up his vision. But there is no sniff of a policy-release timetable.
Ideally, the party should be issuing several meaty social policy prescriptions, with a reasonable level of detail, over the next couple of months, to keep hold of the agenda. Policy production is now deputy Bill English’s business, but he doesn’t have too many accomplished policy wonks to draw on in that caucus. You could ask what a caucus that advocates work-for-dole has been doing all these years. Not work-for-salary, apparently. In contrast, Labour in opposition had a 10-point plan even for teabag disposal.
You would think that all the time National MPs now save on not emailing Don Brash could be directed to policy formulation. Bill might have to put on a big leather pinny and start calling himself Miss Whiplash.
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