Three of the items are National planks: signing the TPP, not introducing a water tax, and not moving to cut immigration. These, they argue, are policy "flip-flops" for which the Government must be scolded – simply because it's Labour doing it.
That's beyond petty, and illustrates the politics of negativity that delivered Brexit and Trump are alive and well.
But surely that's not our mindset. Aren't we a practical down-to-earth country?
Once upon a time our No 8 wire approach may have held that true, but we've fallen into this negative blame game because we're not prepared to admit our own faults.
Take Napier mayor Bill Dalton. Even though the city was seven years overdue in fulfilling its water user consent conditions and had multiple system failures from pumps not working to reservoirs not built properly, Dalton's reaction to the city suddenly running short of water was to blame the residents – most of whom had no idea it was an issue.
Years of vote-catching spin about low debt has now come home to roost, with the council having to rush into an expensive works programme to put right infrastructure that's not fit for purpose.
But it's still your fault, citizens.
In the same way, farmers talk about how they're trying to improve things, yet continue to sidestep the fact chemical mechanised intensified production is causing the bulk of our environmental problems.
Instead they worry up a town versus country divide, blaming cities and industry for polluting. Which of course they do; but by not clearly owning their own faults they encourage those so inclined to do nothing.
You may say I'm being hypocritical, but there's a considerable difference between criticism with good cause and harping and blaming for the sake of it.
Expert professionals are highly paid to come up with solutions. My job is to critique their performance – not solve the problem for them.
Yes, sometimes it's a fine line, but all I aim to do is present the facts and be critical in a way that highlights what needs to change. In short trying, in my own way, to turn negatives into positives.
It's been a horrible depressing year for many folk out there, and not just the poor, and it certainly isn't helped by those at the top constantly trying to shift responsibility for their failings onto others.
If we want a society that is positive about the future in a constructive way, our leaders – at all levels - need to become our example. Let's reframe it as relentless responsibility - where the buck stops.
■Bruce Bisset is a freelance writer and poet.
■Views expressed here are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's.
