John Armstrong is back with a column at One News (or whatever they’re called this week). John sees everything in terms of political horse racing – even earthquakes. – Government knows how to play a disaster
During such national emergencies, Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition becomes irrelevant.
Its component parties have no power. They cannot do anything that helps the victims of a natural disaster.
If Opposition politicians are critical of something that the Government has or has not done to start fixing things, they risk being accused of exploiting people’s misery for political profit.
On top of that, the public expects politicians to take a bipartisan stance during national emergencies.
That is the high ground. Andrew Little has wisely chosen to occupy – at least for the time being.
In the Government’s case, the supposed politics-free zone is a charade.
By definition, action taken by a government has a political component or political motive.
No-one inside the Government would ever admit it, but dealing with the after-effects of a natural disaster of the current proportions allows National to reinforce its leadership and competence credentials without looking self-serving.
The Prime Minister has got this down to a fine art.
You can’t blame the Nats for trying to look good for the cameras on this, any party in power would do the same. But you can blame them for naked politicising government earthquake response. What is National’s logo doing on taxpayer funded government responses?
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