Post Election Thoughts

My vote went to NZ First in the expectation National would require NZ First’s support. My take is now that National will probably, even need to, take NZ First into the tent in order to consolidate a majority. Could we then look forward to an ongoing media feeding frenzy focussed totally on NZ First? A brake of some kind is needed on National and ACT’s more extreme policy proposals – more so on ACT.

Many of National’s 100 days targets could run counter to some of ACT’s or NZ First’s proposals. National’s targets are obviously designed to fund its tax cuts. For example extending the retirement/superannuation age to 67 would on a very, very rough reckoning “save” $2.5 Billion per annum in today’s dollars.

What to make of a National/ACT/NZ First coalition? The worst troublemaker will likely be ACT who will put a lot of effort into interfering with NZ First.

To the matter of Maori culture. In posts below here, and on other blog sites comments, I have expressed numerous times concerns about how, and where, the Maori cultural elites are trying to lead New Zealand. Too many politicians and academics, of all stripes, have indulged the Maori elites and have raised expectations well beyond what the electorate could ever be comfortable with. This election result is the expression of the electorate’s unspoken racial and cultural concerns.

National promised to reverse practically all parts of the Three Waters structure and to dispense with the Maori Health Authority. From there we should see other moves on the fraught issue of co-governance. During the campaign I didn’t hear of Labour protesting much about those National promises.

National are laying down a marker for Maori culture. It is time for Maori to stand back, by more than a few steps, and understand that they have become the source of division. The wider culture has for generations demonstrated its ability and willingness to accommodate any number of cultures. But, there must be limits. My hope is that following this election we shall see Maori clean up its own back yard and get on with the business of being good neighbours to themselves and the rest of New Zealand.

I do not go along with ACT wanting a referendum on the aims and objectives of the Treaty. The Green party and the Maori party however (James Shaw and John Tamihere) have together in so many words suggested that civil unrest, violence maybe, would result if a referendum was held. If that is not a threat I don’t know what is.

The Treaty issue does have to be dealt if only for the reasons that Maori will never be satisfied and there has been too much of tip-toeing around the subject by all parties. The Treaty claims system we have today was put in place by legislation and can be dealt with in the same way. Placing an immediate deadline on all Waitangi Tribunal claims should be followed by the disestablishment of the Tribunal.