National must step up its act
June 26 2009
In the lead up to the national election in 2008, several media commentators had said that nine years of Labour Party rule and its increasingly centrist stance over that period had forced the National Party to make its own outlook far more centrist than it ever was before.
And the pronouncements the party made in the months before the poll certainly indicated that changing stance. Apart from bashing Labour’s business unfriendly policies and its brand of social re-engineering, National projected itself as an inclusive outfit, alive to the new realities of a country that had changed considerably since it was last in power. One of these big changes was obviously the growing multi-ethnic composition of the electorate.
Seven months into its term, though, it is already beginning to look like the party is poised to veer back toward its traditional right of centre approach – especially so from the point of view of this country’s growing and increasingly politically active minority communities.
Several developments in the recent past point to this.
The manner in which National list MP Melissa Lee was nearly abandoned by her party’s leadership as she emerged a distant second in the Mount Albert by-election on the day the result was declared only served to reinforce this perception. Prime Minister John Key had said he was engaged at a family commitment that was made in February. But what about his next in command Bill English? What about the rest of the senior leadership?
All we heard were excuses for not being there – and that too after several of them claimed to have hit the campaign trail so as to fit their other commitments in Auckland to be able to claim certain expenses as revealed in the New Zealand Herald last week.
Would it have been the same if Lee had won the election? Would she have been left similarly high and dry by National’s top brass?
In the Indian community this feeling of the party’s tendency toward high handedness and riding roughshod first came up when longtime National candidate Ravi Musuku was unceremoniously dropped in favour of Lee. “There was hardly any consultation with the community and it was all done so suddenly, it came as a complete surprise,” a senior Indian community leader from the electorate had told Indian Weekender.
Lee’s abandonment by the party’s senior leadership on result day has not gone down well not only in the Mount Albert electorate but also elsewhere in Auckland. The government’s handling of the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance in the lead up to the by-election and the manner in which it responded to opposition to the State Highway 20 extension through Waterview clearly proved counter productive.
Key’s poor handling of the Richard Worth affair, too, hasn’t helped. He has refused to give reasons why the former internal affairs minister had lost his confidence. There has been no evidence of any crime that has been committed and neither have the full contents of the two way communication between Dr Worth and Ms Neelam Chaudary have been revealed.
By stepping right into what clearly appears to have been nothing more than a mud-slinging set up that Labour leader Phil Goff championed, the Prime Minister has shown that he has some way to go before he makes the successful transition from
corporate financial czar to astute politician.
He clearly walked into a trap most ingenuously and nearly played along with Labour’s obvious strategy to keep the issue alive for as long as it could to embarrass him and his government. Of course it would be too much to expect Mr Key to have Helen Clark’s nous. And then again, Mr Key doesn’t have a Heather Simpson to troubleshoot either.
It is altogether another matter that Mr Goff’s ploy badly backfired and burned him more than the Prime Minister or even Dr Worth, for that matter. What might have been a strategy to regain Labour’s centrestage has come unstuck for him. Commentators have already begun saying that David Shearer would be Labour’s prime ministerial candidate next time around.
But the Indian community sees Dr Worth – who has been closely associated with it and who many respect – as little more than the fall guy in this unseemly mudslinging match and believe that National could have dealt with him far more reasonably, at least till such a time as no charges were laid.
Meanwhile the perception of National’s high handedness continues in the community. At the executive committee meeting of the New Zealand Indian Central Association (NZICA) – which, at 86 years, is the country’s oldest Indian association with a nationwide presence – it was revealed that its attempts to meet Local Government Minister Rodney Hide had come a cropper.
The association sought a meeting with Mr Hide to put across the community’s concerns on the super city plans but received a terse reply from his office that after careful consideration, the minister had declined to meet with the association. The decision to meet or not is certainly his prerogative. But the question is, did he and his office consider the fact that there are some 100,000 Indians in the Greater Auckland area that comprise nearly 8% of the metro’s population? That they now form a considerable force at the hustings?
His refusal to meet with NZICA leaders has left the association and the community disappointed. There is no doubt that the ruling party has to spruce up its people skills and be far more community friendly especially when it comes to the ethnic minorities. Collectively they are an emerging force twith the numbers that can influence electoral outcomes particularly in this country’s tightly contested polls. Inclusiveness is no mere buzzword today. National must step up its act. Act must too.
And the pronouncements the party made in the months before the poll certainly indicated that changing stance. Apart from bashing Labour’s business unfriendly policies and its brand of social re-engineering, National projected itself as an inclusive outfit, alive to the new realities of a country that had changed considerably since it was last in power. One of these big changes was obviously the growing multi-ethnic composition of the electorate.
Seven months into its term, though, it is already beginning to look like the party is poised to veer back toward its traditional right of centre approach – especially so from the point of view of this country’s growing and increasingly politically active minority communities.
Several developments in the recent past point to this.
The manner in which National list MP Melissa Lee was nearly abandoned by her party’s leadership as she emerged a distant second in the Mount Albert by-election on the day the result was declared only served to reinforce this perception. Prime Minister John Key had said he was engaged at a family commitment that was made in February. But what about his next in command Bill English? What about the rest of the senior leadership?
All we heard were excuses for not being there – and that too after several of them claimed to have hit the campaign trail so as to fit their other commitments in Auckland to be able to claim certain expenses as revealed in the New Zealand Herald last week.
Would it have been the same if Lee had won the election? Would she have been left similarly high and dry by National’s top brass?
In the Indian community this feeling of the party’s tendency toward high handedness and riding roughshod first came up when longtime National candidate Ravi Musuku was unceremoniously dropped in favour of Lee. “There was hardly any consultation with the community and it was all done so suddenly, it came as a complete surprise,” a senior Indian community leader from the electorate had told Indian Weekender.
Lee’s abandonment by the party’s senior leadership on result day has not gone down well not only in the Mount Albert electorate but also elsewhere in Auckland. The government’s handling of the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance in the lead up to the by-election and the manner in which it responded to opposition to the State Highway 20 extension through Waterview clearly proved counter productive.
Key’s poor handling of the Richard Worth affair, too, hasn’t helped. He has refused to give reasons why the former internal affairs minister had lost his confidence. There has been no evidence of any crime that has been committed and neither have the full contents of the two way communication between Dr Worth and Ms Neelam Chaudary have been revealed.
By stepping right into what clearly appears to have been nothing more than a mud-slinging set up that Labour leader Phil Goff championed, the Prime Minister has shown that he has some way to go before he makes the successful transition from
corporate financial czar to astute politician.
He clearly walked into a trap most ingenuously and nearly played along with Labour’s obvious strategy to keep the issue alive for as long as it could to embarrass him and his government. Of course it would be too much to expect Mr Key to have Helen Clark’s nous. And then again, Mr Key doesn’t have a Heather Simpson to troubleshoot either.
It is altogether another matter that Mr Goff’s ploy badly backfired and burned him more than the Prime Minister or even Dr Worth, for that matter. What might have been a strategy to regain Labour’s centrestage has come unstuck for him. Commentators have already begun saying that David Shearer would be Labour’s prime ministerial candidate next time around.
But the Indian community sees Dr Worth – who has been closely associated with it and who many respect – as little more than the fall guy in this unseemly mudslinging match and believe that National could have dealt with him far more reasonably, at least till such a time as no charges were laid.
Meanwhile the perception of National’s high handedness continues in the community. At the executive committee meeting of the New Zealand Indian Central Association (NZICA) – which, at 86 years, is the country’s oldest Indian association with a nationwide presence – it was revealed that its attempts to meet Local Government Minister Rodney Hide had come a cropper.
The association sought a meeting with Mr Hide to put across the community’s concerns on the super city plans but received a terse reply from his office that after careful consideration, the minister had declined to meet with the association. The decision to meet or not is certainly his prerogative. But the question is, did he and his office consider the fact that there are some 100,000 Indians in the Greater Auckland area that comprise nearly 8% of the metro’s population? That they now form a considerable force at the hustings?
His refusal to meet with NZICA leaders has left the association and the community disappointed. There is no doubt that the ruling party has to spruce up its people skills and be far more community friendly especially when it comes to the ethnic minorities. Collectively they are an emerging force twith the numbers that can influence electoral outcomes particularly in this country’s tightly contested polls. Inclusiveness is no mere buzzword today. National must step up its act. Act must too.
In the lead up to the national election in 2008, several media commentators had said that nine years of Labour Party rule and its increasingly centrist stance over that period had forced the National Party to make its own outlook far more centrist than it ever was before. And the pronouncements the...
In the lead up to the national election in 2008, several media commentators had said that nine years of Labour Party rule and its increasingly centrist stance over that period had forced the National Party to make its own outlook far more centrist than it ever was before.
And the pronouncements the party made in the months before the poll certainly indicated that changing stance. Apart from bashing Labour’s business unfriendly policies and its brand of social re-engineering, National projected itself as an inclusive outfit, alive to the new realities of a country that had changed considerably since it was last in power. One of these big changes was obviously the growing multi-ethnic composition of the electorate.
Seven months into its term, though, it is already beginning to look like the party is poised to veer back toward its traditional right of centre approach – especially so from the point of view of this country’s growing and increasingly politically active minority communities.
Several developments in the recent past point to this.
The manner in which National list MP Melissa Lee was nearly abandoned by her party’s leadership as she emerged a distant second in the Mount Albert by-election on the day the result was declared only served to reinforce this perception. Prime Minister John Key had said he was engaged at a family commitment that was made in February. But what about his next in command Bill English? What about the rest of the senior leadership?
All we heard were excuses for not being there – and that too after several of them claimed to have hit the campaign trail so as to fit their other commitments in Auckland to be able to claim certain expenses as revealed in the New Zealand Herald last week.
Would it have been the same if Lee had won the election? Would she have been left similarly high and dry by National’s top brass?
In the Indian community this feeling of the party’s tendency toward high handedness and riding roughshod first came up when longtime National candidate Ravi Musuku was unceremoniously dropped in favour of Lee. “There was hardly any consultation with the community and it was all done so suddenly, it came as a complete surprise,” a senior Indian community leader from the electorate had told Indian Weekender.
Lee’s abandonment by the party’s senior leadership on result day has not gone down well not only in the Mount Albert electorate but also elsewhere in Auckland. The government’s handling of the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance in the lead up to the by-election and the manner in which it responded to opposition to the State Highway 20 extension through Waterview clearly proved counter productive.
Key’s poor handling of the Richard Worth affair, too, hasn’t helped. He has refused to give reasons why the former internal affairs minister had lost his confidence. There has been no evidence of any crime that has been committed and neither have the full contents of the two way communication between Dr Worth and Ms Neelam Chaudary have been revealed.
By stepping right into what clearly appears to have been nothing more than a mud-slinging set up that Labour leader Phil Goff championed, the Prime Minister has shown that he has some way to go before he makes the successful transition from
corporate financial czar to astute politician.
He clearly walked into a trap most ingenuously and nearly played along with Labour’s obvious strategy to keep the issue alive for as long as it could to embarrass him and his government. Of course it would be too much to expect Mr Key to have Helen Clark’s nous. And then again, Mr Key doesn’t have a Heather Simpson to troubleshoot either.
It is altogether another matter that Mr Goff’s ploy badly backfired and burned him more than the Prime Minister or even Dr Worth, for that matter. What might have been a strategy to regain Labour’s centrestage has come unstuck for him. Commentators have already begun saying that David Shearer would be Labour’s prime ministerial candidate next time around.
But the Indian community sees Dr Worth – who has been closely associated with it and who many respect – as little more than the fall guy in this unseemly mudslinging match and believe that National could have dealt with him far more reasonably, at least till such a time as no charges were laid.
Meanwhile the perception of National’s high handedness continues in the community. At the executive committee meeting of the New Zealand Indian Central Association (NZICA) – which, at 86 years, is the country’s oldest Indian association with a nationwide presence – it was revealed that its attempts to meet Local Government Minister Rodney Hide had come a cropper.
The association sought a meeting with Mr Hide to put across the community’s concerns on the super city plans but received a terse reply from his office that after careful consideration, the minister had declined to meet with the association. The decision to meet or not is certainly his prerogative. But the question is, did he and his office consider the fact that there are some 100,000 Indians in the Greater Auckland area that comprise nearly 8% of the metro’s population? That they now form a considerable force at the hustings?
His refusal to meet with NZICA leaders has left the association and the community disappointed. There is no doubt that the ruling party has to spruce up its people skills and be far more community friendly especially when it comes to the ethnic minorities. Collectively they are an emerging force twith the numbers that can influence electoral outcomes particularly in this country’s tightly contested polls. Inclusiveness is no mere buzzword today. National must step up its act. Act must too.
And the pronouncements the party made in the months before the poll certainly indicated that changing stance. Apart from bashing Labour’s business unfriendly policies and its brand of social re-engineering, National projected itself as an inclusive outfit, alive to the new realities of a country that had changed considerably since it was last in power. One of these big changes was obviously the growing multi-ethnic composition of the electorate.
Seven months into its term, though, it is already beginning to look like the party is poised to veer back toward its traditional right of centre approach – especially so from the point of view of this country’s growing and increasingly politically active minority communities.
Several developments in the recent past point to this.
The manner in which National list MP Melissa Lee was nearly abandoned by her party’s leadership as she emerged a distant second in the Mount Albert by-election on the day the result was declared only served to reinforce this perception. Prime Minister John Key had said he was engaged at a family commitment that was made in February. But what about his next in command Bill English? What about the rest of the senior leadership?
All we heard were excuses for not being there – and that too after several of them claimed to have hit the campaign trail so as to fit their other commitments in Auckland to be able to claim certain expenses as revealed in the New Zealand Herald last week.
Would it have been the same if Lee had won the election? Would she have been left similarly high and dry by National’s top brass?
In the Indian community this feeling of the party’s tendency toward high handedness and riding roughshod first came up when longtime National candidate Ravi Musuku was unceremoniously dropped in favour of Lee. “There was hardly any consultation with the community and it was all done so suddenly, it came as a complete surprise,” a senior Indian community leader from the electorate had told Indian Weekender.
Lee’s abandonment by the party’s senior leadership on result day has not gone down well not only in the Mount Albert electorate but also elsewhere in Auckland. The government’s handling of the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance in the lead up to the by-election and the manner in which it responded to opposition to the State Highway 20 extension through Waterview clearly proved counter productive.
Key’s poor handling of the Richard Worth affair, too, hasn’t helped. He has refused to give reasons why the former internal affairs minister had lost his confidence. There has been no evidence of any crime that has been committed and neither have the full contents of the two way communication between Dr Worth and Ms Neelam Chaudary have been revealed.
By stepping right into what clearly appears to have been nothing more than a mud-slinging set up that Labour leader Phil Goff championed, the Prime Minister has shown that he has some way to go before he makes the successful transition from
corporate financial czar to astute politician.
He clearly walked into a trap most ingenuously and nearly played along with Labour’s obvious strategy to keep the issue alive for as long as it could to embarrass him and his government. Of course it would be too much to expect Mr Key to have Helen Clark’s nous. And then again, Mr Key doesn’t have a Heather Simpson to troubleshoot either.
It is altogether another matter that Mr Goff’s ploy badly backfired and burned him more than the Prime Minister or even Dr Worth, for that matter. What might have been a strategy to regain Labour’s centrestage has come unstuck for him. Commentators have already begun saying that David Shearer would be Labour’s prime ministerial candidate next time around.
But the Indian community sees Dr Worth – who has been closely associated with it and who many respect – as little more than the fall guy in this unseemly mudslinging match and believe that National could have dealt with him far more reasonably, at least till such a time as no charges were laid.
Meanwhile the perception of National’s high handedness continues in the community. At the executive committee meeting of the New Zealand Indian Central Association (NZICA) – which, at 86 years, is the country’s oldest Indian association with a nationwide presence – it was revealed that its attempts to meet Local Government Minister Rodney Hide had come a cropper.
The association sought a meeting with Mr Hide to put across the community’s concerns on the super city plans but received a terse reply from his office that after careful consideration, the minister had declined to meet with the association. The decision to meet or not is certainly his prerogative. But the question is, did he and his office consider the fact that there are some 100,000 Indians in the Greater Auckland area that comprise nearly 8% of the metro’s population? That they now form a considerable force at the hustings?
His refusal to meet with NZICA leaders has left the association and the community disappointed. There is no doubt that the ruling party has to spruce up its people skills and be far more community friendly especially when it comes to the ethnic minorities. Collectively they are an emerging force twith the numbers that can influence electoral outcomes particularly in this country’s tightly contested polls. Inclusiveness is no mere buzzword today. National must step up its act. Act must too.
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