Garner on Labour’s mess

Duncan Garner writes:

The aim of this week was to effectively arrest the narrative back into the positive, to draw a line under, through, around, whichever way works, this winter of concern if not discontent.

How did that go? Disastrous. What a bloody mess  By the end of the week, Labour was further behind than when they’d started out.

I put this down to a few crucial things. 

Labour’s ministers are struggling. Not all of them. They have a handful who get it. The rest are pretenders and threaten the stability of the Government itself. 

They are not match-fit and simply lack the experience or smarts to be players in the big dance. 

Of the 30 Ministers, only around half a dozen are on top of their game.

Jacinda Ardern acted swiftly to stand Whaitiri down, she had no choice. But her lax treatment of Clare Curran was weak and makes her look like a prime minister who is afraid to be too tough on her own. 

As even Helen Clark has effectively pointed out.

Almost a year into this Government I don’t see a plan, I see pockets of progress and hordes of committees.

The Pike River re-entry is a model in how to respect the dead and treat their families with dignity. 

On the flip side, leaving gravely ill Abby Hartley in Bali to battle her insurer to get home looks cold and callous, not compassionate and caring. When did the dollar trump common sense and concern for people so ill.

Not a great week for the Government indeed.