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Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Bruce Bisset: If it smells fishy, throw it back

By Bruce Bisset
Hawkes Bay Today·
7 Jul, 2017 12:01 AM4 mins to read

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Bruce Bisset

Bruce Bisset

Seems like every opportunist and his dog is digging themselves up, dusting themselves off, and presenting themselves "as new" with improved flavours in time to run for election.

Shane Jones being the latest. Not that someone as fishy could ever presume to look or sound fresh, but having managed to somehow convince the old master manipulator Winston Peters that his liabilities are really assets, he now comes in NZ First flavour.

Is Winnie losing his touch? Perhaps his longevity has finally got the better of his political acuity - though it's possible the people of Whangarei could prove him right and me and several thousand disgruntled-and-wavering NZF supporters wrong.

In which case doubtless Jones and a resurrected "new" Labour flavour - Willie Jackson - can form a little sweet shop of horrors amongst the back benches.

A cabal the grander but sadly misguided opportunists like Robert Jones, Kim Dotcom, Colin Craig - or Gareth Morgan for that matter - would sell anything to be part of.

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Not that Morgan quite belongs - yet - in that bunch of has-been would-bes trying to buy their way to power; and he's at least had the chutzpah to call his party what it is.

If you think that's harsh, consider the grab-bag of populist policies The Opportunities Party is offering: something for every disaffected clique, and all you have to do is swallow Morgan's lopsided economics that would give more to the rich while pretending not to.

Which sounds remarkably familiar. Oh, that's right: National. They know all about tweaking the economic dog: a tax-cut here, and few more billion borrowed there, some lolly-scramble bandaids made to look meaningful, and Bill's your PM.

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They're hardly short of opportunists; after all, they just spent three terms being led by one, while Judith "Oravida" Collins and Paula Bennett aka Benefit have certainly made the most of their moments.

Oodles in the back-catalogue too: John Banks, for example; a little pit of opportunism if ever I saw one.

Not to mention their sycophants Dunne and Seymour, whose united one-act parties depend entirely on sucking up to National for every drop they can milk.

And lest it be said I'm one-eyed, nor are the Greens entirely free of this scourge; co-leader Metiria Turei only ran for Mayor of Auckland in order to up her profile for the Greens list en route to Parliament.

The rise of populist opportunism is a world-wide phenomena that is coming to define politics in this early part of the century.

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Politics

Winston breezes through fed-up regions

12 Jul 10:00 PM

Trump in the US, Erdogan in Turkey, Duterte in the Philippines, and right across Europe: in Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Switzerland right-wing populist parties have taken the reins of government, while populist movements in Britain, Germany, France, Spain, and Greece - the latter two from the left - are jostling for power.
One analysis of the trend shows populism globally at its highest level since the 1930s - and we all know what happened then!

But New Zealand's version is I suggest more about valuing the trough than the taonga; aiming to be taxpayer-funded for life by travelling wherever the wind blows. It's become the Kiwi way.

And when you consider the complete pig's breakfast that is Parliament now it's no wonder nearly half the country doesn't vote - even with an MMP system that theoretically gives everyone someone to vote for.

What we all need to do is stop encouraging the rot by allowing ourselves to be coaxed into supporting these freeloaders, and to work within our political associations to force parties to recognise that principle is paramount.

Opportunist populism can be beaten; it just requires we, the populace, to say no.

■Bruce Bisset is a freelance writer and poet.

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