Hannah Tamaki says the Government has failed its mandate from the electorate to build homes, end homelessness and reduce child poverty. Photo / File
Hannah Tamaki says the Government has failed its mandate from the electorate to build homes, end homelessness and reduce child poverty. Photo / File
Opinion
COMMENT:
A shortage of 130,000 homes and an increasing number of Kiwis; living in cars, under bridges, pitching tents in car parks and forming lines outside Work and Income offices at 2am, holding their children, desperate for emergency assistance - is that what the PM meant when she said "Let'sdo this"?
Cancer patients creating GoFundMe pages to raise funds to afford life-saving medication, and our senior citizens, women and children suffering horrific statistics of domestic violence, physical, sexual and emotional abuse - is that what the PM meant when she said "Let's do this"?
Mental illness affecting everyday Kiwis, our country ranking number one in the OECD for homelessness and our major Australian-owned banks making more profit in New Zealand than in Aussie - is that what the PM meant when she said "Let's do this"?
More dairy farms up for sale than ever before in history, farmers struggling to continue their trade, the building industry left without a tier one company and unemployment on the rise - is that what the PM meant when she said "Let's do this"?
With babies born roadside and pregnant mothers devoid of access to support services in the regions, babies being uplifted from their families, roading throughout the country not fit for purpose and infrastructure falling behind the requirements of our population growth - is that what the PM meant when she said "Let's do this"?
It seems Kiwis just cannot win. We either get a National Government that sells off the country's state homes or this Labour Government that does not know how to build them. With all these rapidly rising issues, It is clear to me that New Zealand is under siege from a liberal left agenda.
But who's to blame? With no constitution and apparently no founding religion either, and 213 ethnic groups in New Zealand, it's no surprise we are increasingly becoming devoid of or at least confused about a national identity.
The Kiwi way of life and values my generation grew up with - like putting the milk bottle outside with money in it for the milkman, or feeling safe to leave the doors to the house and car unlocked because everybody had a job and a roof over their head - will be nothing more than a fable for my great-granddaughter when she grows up.
It seems our young nation belongs to whoever wants it, with the eligibility criteria being as long as you are not a European British subject or Tangata Whenua, Māori.
Our Treaty of Waitangi is taken no more seriously by the Crown than the sign that hangs in my toilet reminding my grandsons to "put the seat down" when they have finished.
If Tangata Whenua have a "special place" in New Zealand, then presumably that special place is in prison, or raising their whanau in cars.
Any real beautiful special places, the Government has either confiscated or sold off.
The PM was elected in 2017 on a campaign which saw the electorate mandate her Government to build homes, end homelessness and reduce child poverty. Such promises these days seem to be just a brain fade on the ninth floor of the Beehive.
Winston Peters believed in her and pushed Labour over the line, with the Green Party - whose co-leader Marama Davidson feels her taxpayer-funded job is better used to protest with activists rather than find solutions by speaking directly to the historic number of Maori MPs who sit on the same side of Parliament as her.
I am constantly questioned by critics: what are Coalition New Zealand's policies? Well don't worry, because they will come and they will be solution-based but most importantly the core principle of them will be putting Kiwis first.
Mind you, if these MPs get their way with cannabis, the country will be too stoned to remember anything anyway.
It's not just the Labour Party that led to the launch of Coalition New Zealand. If Simon Bridges had not been so unbelievably hopeless at his job as Leader of the Opposition, I may not have entered the political ring.
If I am to leave behind a country I want my great-granddaughter to grow up in, then this is my only choice.
The Government's year of delivery has been the year of the "emperor with no clothes".
The "pixie dust" is wearing off this Government and Kiwis are realising what they thought was a carriage taking them to the grand ball, was nothing more than a pumpkin, with rats, moving nowhere.
• Hannah Tamaki is the leader of the Coalition New Zealand political party
