It is that time of year where nostalgia kicks in and the desire to review current events dims. Where pundits try to sum up what has been a complete mess of a year in 1,000 words or less.
So much has happened this year. It has truly been twelve months of the praiseworthy and the absolutely pitiful.
And it is time to reflect on the personalities who made us smile, made us frown and made us raise our eyebrows to breaking point.
The absolutely aceing that shot into your foot award goes to Judith Collins who in a remarkably short space of time and in a clear attempt to thwart a brewing leadership spill demoted Simon Bridges for something he had done years ago which had been dealt with by then leader Bill English and then watched helplessly as the National Party Caucus turned on her.
Talk about paying back double.
The winner of the never bring a knife to a gun fight award is comrade Chris Trotter who chose to attack Neale Jones for opposing Nimbyism and attempts to address the housing crisis by allowing intensification. According to Comrade Chris it was better to protect old clapped out houses, rather than allow them to be bowled and replaced by multiple units. And Neale was apparently in the control of property developers.
Neale’s response to Comrade Trotter was very funny.
The Daily Blog’s obsession with Neale is strange as shown by Bomber Bradbury’s praise of Bryce Edwards’ attack on Neale, one which Neale countered in these terms:
The world that Bryce describes, of quiet winks and nods and corrupt backroom deals to undermine the democratic will, simply doesn’t reflect the New Zealand reality.
We have a strong, independent public service, which takes most operational decisions including the awarding of contracts out of the hands of politicians.
We have regular proactive release of all Ministerial diaries and an Official Information Act which, while not perfect, allows for open disclosure of policy advice, briefings, records of meetings and communications for Ministers, their political advisers and the entire public service.
And we are lucky enough to have a Press Gallery based in Parliament who are not shy of using these tools to expose improper behaviour.
I suspect Neale’s business boomed after all of the attention. As it should. He is a rarity, a clear thinker presenting a progressive leftist view of politics and countering the utter negativity of the right with some skill. Think back to the days when Josie Pagani was the media’s left wing commentator of choice if you want to realise how much things have improved.
The winner of the most use of the word “Woke” in a single blog post, as well as multiple blog posts award goes to Comrade Martyn Bradbury whose obsession with the word woke as well as the Greens suggests that professional help could be of assistance.
The walking and cycling the talk award goes to Julie Anne Genter whose commitment to sustainability is that great she has biked to hospital to give birth, twice. For some strange reason she really annoys National MPs. All I can say is that I wish there were more MPs with such a profound commitment to addressing climate change.
The I hope everyone has short memories award goes to rare misstep Simeon Brown who in the same week blamed Labour for Transmission Gully but claimed credit for National for the recently opened Eastern Busway. The former is a PPP project signed up under and designed by National that has been a contractual cluster fuck. The latter is a project that was unfunded under National’s ATAP plan and which needed regional fuel tax money to get it off the ground, a tax that National bitterly opposed.
The having a bob both ways award goes to the National Party Caucus for claiming that the Government’s MIQ settings were too strict, then too loose, then too strict, then too loose, then too strict …
The Micky Savage of the 21st Century award goes to the appropriately named Michael Wood. He has got Auckland’s light rail project back on track. He has overseen the introduction of Vaccine Mandates in workplaces. He is at the forefront of efforts to introduce fair pay agreements. If he achieves this then workers for many years in the future will benefit.
This performance in the House for me was one of the standouts.
The Opposition MP of the year award goes to Chris Bishop.
He has been relentlessly attacking the Government on Covid and whether we like it or not or whether the result is just it has softened up support for Labour. He has created a huge sense of grumpiness in the electorate. The old mantra that the left succeed with hope and the right succeed with fear has never been truer. His effect is shown by the number of commentators who talk about Covid saliva testing. The test is much less accurate and the results can be kept private so in terms of a public health handling of a response to a pandemic the proposal has little merit but talk about it we do. And in the absence of a even moderate body count it has become a reason to attack the Government, even though on a comparison with the performance of all other western countries our response has been so good.
The New Phone Who Dis award for MP least recognised by the general public goes to the third to tenth ranked ACT MPs in Parliament. Google their names and see if you recognise them or if you know anything about them. They are being kept on a very tight leash and you have to wonder if this discipline will hold.
The look deep into the future award goes to the Green Party who consistently talk about climate change. If you think that Covid is bad the environmental trends that the world is experiencing clearly indicate we are heading towards a disaster. This is the last decade we have to do anything. The Greens are consistent reminders of this.
And the winner of the coveted prize for Politician of the year is Jacinda Ardern. While throughout the world Delta Covid brought advanced nations to their knees and while many countries are seeing their fourth or fifth Covid wave here in Aotearoa New Zealand she managed to vaccinate pretty well everyone she could and we have seen something extraordinary, the taming of Covid Delta. Not that you would appreciate how good the response is if you read anything from local right wing media.
As said by Gordon Campbell in this must read post:
Arguably New Zealand has managed the best response to Covid in the entire world. This didn’t happen by accident. It reflects the skill and dedication of tens of thousands of people working at the borders, in MIQ facilities and in the public health system. Hundreds are alive and well today who would have not have been if the government had bowed to pressure from the business sector and its friends in the media, and thrown the borders open prematurely.
The country is currently seeing off the Delta incursion with minimal fatalities and a world beating vaccination rate. With Omicron waiting around the corner I cannot think of any leader in the world I would prefer to have at this most challenging of times.
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