Cut that out

Are we in an election year or what? In the past couple of
days both Helen Clark and John Key have ruthlessly
cracked down on political embarrassments that might
have got out of hand and damaged their electoral chances.
First, when backbencher Kate Wilkinson implied that
National would not support compulsory contributions by
employers to KiwiSaver, Key bluntly said “She got it
wrong.” Had he tried to defend or excuse her in any way,
or fudge the issue, Labour would have partied merrily at
National’s expense. As it is, the Government got only
limited play out of Wilkinson’s slip—though the suspicion
lingers that National has not been straight with the public
about its intentions for KiwiSaver.

Though she’s National’s labour & industrial relations
spokesperson (who knew?), Wilkinson could hardly be
said to be close to Key, or a major player in her party. On
the other side of the House the same can’t be said of
Housing Minister Maryan Street, former Labour Party
president, long-time ally of Clark’s and, in my view, a
potential leader of the party. On Tuesday she robustly
defended the Housing Corporation’s spending of
$65,000 for a two-day conference for 94 staffers at a
so-called luxury lodge in the central North Island. An
examination of the value for money in this case suggests
that the cost and location were defensible—as Russell
Brown points out in his Hard News blog, $250 per head
per night cost for accommodation, meals and conference
facilities is not exactly wildly extravagant, and not even
in the same ballpark as the infamous WINZ retreat under
Christine Rankin in 1999 (when National was in power),
which cost four times as much. Also, despite the bandying
about in the media of the word “luxury,” you will not find
the venue in question, Tongariro Lodge, listed on any
major tourism websites as a “luxury lodge.” The emphasis
is, rather, on the fishing opportunities it affords.

Nonetheless, Clark rose in the House yesterday and cut
Street adrift, forcing the latter to take a much meeker line
and humbly promise that Housing Corporation conference
venues in future would be more “appropriate.” It was an
unlovely but brutally impressive sight, seeing a perfectly
competent senior politician like Street reduced to the status
of a junior being rebuked by her boss. But that’s what Clark
did, and that, it seems, is what you do when you want at
all costs to win an election. You don’t let any kind of
potential embarrassment get legs; otherwise it will run and
run, whipped on by your political enemies and spotlighted
by a media desperate to beat up the differences between
two major parties that are actually getting harder and
harder to tell apart.

No-brainer

This just in: Experts are expressing concern about
a likely shortage of National Party policy this winter.
“The National Party policy pool quite often runs dry,”
says policy consultant Nigel Strange, “but most years
they manage to dredge up something that more or
less passes muster. This year I’m afraid they’re
scraping rock bottom.”

National Party policy traditionally relies on a light
drizzle of ideas that, while erratic and often
insufficient to stimulate intelligent life, goes some
way towards filling the yawning crater of caucus,
from which the party usually draws sustenance.
Unfortunately, not one worthwhile idea has landed
on caucus this year, leading to a dramatic drop in
mental activity. Most parts of the caucus have been
without brain for at least three months.

Dr Strange advises voters not to panic, because it is
not clear, he says, that an increase in National Party
policy would in fact make any difference to the
country’s well-being. There is also, he adds, an
element of risk after such a drought: anyone spotting
an original National Party idea should proceed with
caution, as conditions may be extremely slippery.

Beyond the mindset

The 2008 Budget delivered by Finance Minister Michael
Cullen on May 22, and the media coverage since, have
both been remarkable for the striking absence of the
burning issues of our time: global warming and the
exhaustion of the fossil fuels upon which modern society
has relied so heavily. Cullen made only glancing reference
to these issues and their enormous impact on every aspect
of the economy, and then only to say that householders
needed and deserved "relief"—in the form of tax cuts—from
such pressures. It was further evidence, as if we needed
any, of the mindset that pigeonholes "environmental"
issues separately from "economic" ones. They are of course
one and the same, but unless our politicians can get their
heads around that, we're stuck in the same old rut. John Key
is no better: he spoke the other day of balancing economic
and environmental needs, as if the latter were just trees and
water and stuff inimical to the real business of making
money. Only the Green Party stands outside that mindset:
as co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons told Kathryn Ryan on
Radio New Zealand National this morning, the proposed
Emissions Trading Scheme—in all its glorious inadequacy—
is actually a far more significant piece of legislation than
any of the Budgetary measures announced last Thursday.
To deliver a Budget of which the post-oil age is not the
centrepiece is like having a party without the host being
present. And running out of food and drink very fast.

Goodness

"Goodness is something so simple: always to live for
others—never to one’s own advantage." Someone
once pinned this thought of Dag Hammarskjold’s to
a noticeboard in Nelson Cathedral. Why does one’s
heart sink at the prospect? At any rate, it would be
impossible. Simply to exist is to live for one’s own
advantage.

How beautiful the river flows
and the birds they sing;
but you and I are messier things.
—Bruce Springsteen

O happy day

This just in: Opposition leader John Key has unreservedly
welcomed the Finance Minister’s announcements of tax
cuts taking effect from October.

“We’ve been calling for tax cuts for some time,” exclaimed
the National Party leader excitedly, “so you can imagine
how delighted we are. It’s pretty much what the doctor
ordered.”

Asked whether the Government hadn’t stolen National’s
thunder, Key crisply replied: “You mean we should
begrudge the people of this country more money in their
pockets? Don’t be foolish. We’re not in politics for petty
partisan gain but to ensure New Zealanders have better,
healthier, more prosperous lives.”

As for other Budget announcements, Key said he and his
colleagues were “over the moon” about the big funding
boost for faster rollout of broadband and “positively
ecstatic” about money being poured into workplace
training and skills development.

“Cullen’s really nailed it,” said Key. “We couldn’t have
done better ourselves. Now let’s all roll up our sleeves and
get on with doing the best we can for New Zealand.”

The media conference was interrupted at this point when
journalists spotted a fleet of flying pigs in the sky and
crowded to the window for a better look.

Atmospherics

Ewen Alison, in an obscure old book called A New
Zealander Looks Back, makes the unusual claim that
New Zealand has a particularly heavy atmosphere—
about 15lb to the square inch—that tends to make
people, especially in the north of the country, sluggish
and slow-moving. Robin Hyde seemed to reinforce
this notion in her comment on the sickness of New
Zealand soil: she said that it was more obvious in the
north, where it was "bled white and has never been fed
up again, and is a sort of beautiful skeleton." Discuss.

Even cleaner

Further to my blog of May 15 about book and film titles
doubling up, especially in the case of The Cleaner, the
wonderfully named Brett Battles, author of just such a
book, emails to say there's also a show in development
at an American cable network called The Cleaner. It's
good to know hygiene plays such a significant part in
our culture. That must be why we call them soaps.