Gisborne Herald
  • Gisborne Herald Home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport

Locations

  • Gisborne
  • Bay of Plenty
  • Hawke's Bay

Media

  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Gisborne Herald / Opinion

Loyalty can be detrimental

Gisborne Herald
27 Jul, 2023 09:10 AMQuick Read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Politics is a rapacious “omnivore” and is prone to gobble-up the most intelligent and loyal politicians. Although Kiri Allan’s politics probably suffered from lack of support from many members of the political centre-left, no one can dispute her intelligence and party loyalty.

Sometimes it is both those qualities in ministers and MPs in general that can create an environment where loyalty to a Government makes them put aside their intelligent reasoning, in order to be loyal to their leader’s expectations.

Although there will be attempts to shout-down this explanation, that environment can cause the member to be so stressed that they will have difficulties handling the stresses of their private lives.

An intelligent person would, particularly in retrospect, see the handling of forgone situations such as the health mandate protests — where the Government and Parliament in general refused to engage with the protesters at any level — as the reason the mainstream protesters started to ramp the protest up, and fuel the drive of the “fringe” who were there to only foster disorder. No wonder the protests reached the level they did.

That political slip-up has never been put to rights and is at least in part responsible for the stress in hospital workplaces and failure to deliver timely diagnosis and treatment to the general public today.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Those with political intelligence would have worried about then prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s attacks on free speech, even though legislation along those lines was sidelined by the party going towards the election.

The putting right of our material and social infrastructure can only come from a reasonable and fair capital gains tax, which would support rebuilding and commerce without driving middle-NZ into poverty and homelessness.

Perhaps it is a false loyalty to the “party line” which is the root cause of party disintegration heading into this election, which is likely to need a “wild card — honest broker” party to give us anything like a stable political future.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Dennis Pennefather

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Gisborne Herald

Gisborne Herald

From top to bottom: Gisborne slumps to last on economic scoreboard, locals still optimistic

19 Jun 06:00 AM
Gisborne Herald

Flippa ball making a splash at Kiwa Pools

19 Jun 05:21 AM
Gisborne Herald

Gisborne's Robert Ford one of 22 new firefighters

19 Jun 05:00 AM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Gisborne Herald

From top to bottom: Gisborne slumps to last on economic scoreboard, locals still optimistic

From top to bottom: Gisborne slumps to last on economic scoreboard, locals still optimistic

19 Jun 06:00 AM

Residents say there is more to the story than Gisborne's economic ranking suggests.

Flippa ball making a splash at Kiwa Pools

Flippa ball making a splash at Kiwa Pools

19 Jun 05:21 AM
Gisborne's Robert Ford one of 22 new firefighters

Gisborne's Robert Ford one of 22 new firefighters

19 Jun 05:00 AM
Upgraded flood resilience work on Wairoa River Bar starts this week

Upgraded flood resilience work on Wairoa River Bar starts this week

19 Jun 04:00 AM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Gisborne Herald
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Gisborne Herald
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP