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Mike's Minute: The Government can't handle any pressure

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Mon, 5 Oct 2020, 10:36AM

Mike's Minute: The Government can't handle any pressure

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Mon, 5 Oct 2020, 10:36AM

The pressure is on the government to match Scott Morrison.

He stole the rugby, he produced a vastly more successful lockdown and therefore has an economy that shrank way less than ours. And now he's embarrassed us by producing a travel bubble that only has one thing missing, a change of mindset from the lot that have us prisoner on the false premise that we are in mortal danger if we step on a flight to Sydney.

The weak point of this government is pressure, they can't handle it. We saw that with their RMA announcement on Friday. More on that in a moment.

But just how long do you think it will be before the calls get so loud on reciprocation that they can't resist? Australia is worth a fortune to us in tourism and trade. Literally billions are sitting there waiting to be unloaded here.

If a government can't see the benefit of that and want a slice, given the Covid numbers, then you have to start to conclude their approach is Machiavellian, their approach is highly prescriptive towards fear and reliance on a politburo that wants to control your life, movements, and thoughts. Let's watch this space and see if they buckle.

But back to the RMA, another massive cock up and a result of pressure they could no longer stand. National spent nine years trying to reform it, Labour wouldn't help. Labour spent the last three years in government defending the very thing they're now ripping up. Why?

They suspended it after Covid for obvious reasons. But the announcement, ironically at a multi-million dollar build site in Auckland, the project owned by an offshore billionaire, oh the irony, was designed to get more affordable housing.

So, what's changed? Reality, that’s what.

National have championed reform of the RMA and Labour have been embarrassed. But, and it's a significant but, what replaces it? The headline is Labour are dumping the RMA, but for what?

You need to have regulation. So, what sort of regulation? Is it possible that the replacement won't actually be that different to what they’ve dropped, thus making Fridays call a smokescreen, a blatant vote grab, and therefore a con?

We are seeing more of this, a party that entered this race so confident of a cakewalk they didn’t have anything to announce bar fear and welfare. And now they're drumming up reform on the hoof.

Their lack of plan for anything other than coasting to victory is each day now being exposed badly. If tonight's poll shows a further eroding of their support, you watch how many panic buttons get hit.

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