Rob Rattenbury: Covid 19 brings out good and bad in people and politicians

COMMENT:

The past two months have been the most challenging of times in many years for our country.

We have been asked to pull together as a nation and most of us have done this.

There have been some who simply are not able to act responsibly or selflessly, never have and never will.

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Hopefully, many of them will be spending some time in the coming weeks visiting their local courts to try to explain their stupid selfish acts to a judge, or at least suffer the ignominy of a fine and conviction for inconsiderate behaviour.

It is times like this that we see the best in others but also the worst, most base behaviours such as people hoarding, spitting or coughing on others, pushing in and abusing essential service workers on minimal wages who work at great risk to their own health, serving the public.

Others try to rort online grocery shopping sites by falsely claiming illness for priority shopping, a particularly cold-blooded, heartless and selfish act, denying some old or ill people timely access to food.

Most people seem kinder overall though, like we have all been in this bubble together, a whole country.

We are now trying to work our way back down the levels and out of lockdown. We have months ahead of trying to get our country's economy back up and running.

It has become sadly clear that many have or will lose their jobs or small businesses due to this pandemic and the drastic actions our Government has had to take to protect us all.

Our Government has been facing increasing and strident criticism from some quarters, in my opinion, most shamefully from the Leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges.

While there has been no Grand Coalition as such, there has been a sort of peace pact between political parties since lockdown began in order to fight the bigger evil rather than petty point-scoring.

The question posed to these doubters is, "where would we be if we had not undertaken lockdown the way we have?" We would have had a higher rate of infection and a higher death toll, that's where.

New Zealanders expect their elected leaders to look after them as much as is possible, which can be extensive in a wealthy first-world nation such as ours.

We are just over four months out from a General Election. Time is ticking down and it is natural that political parties will be getting a bit antsy about not being able to tout for votes yet.

I, like hundreds of thousands of other citizens, am not a dyed-in-the-wool voter.

My votes go to who I feel will be able to represent my own little part of paradise the best but also who will continue to allow our country to succeed the most.

People like me move among the major political parties all our lives. The beauty of the two main political parties being basically centrist is that life does not normally fall to bits if one or the other forms a government.

MMP has made this more interesting, allowing some of the more fringe-dwelling political parties a voice which, I guess, is fair to an extent.

Luckily they are controlled by the two major parties to a large extent, protecting the majority from their sometimes unusual dogma.

It is early days yet but if I was a betting man I would be putting a few bob on Jacinda Ardern to retain the Treasury benches in September, in my happiest of dreams without New Zealand First and the Green Party, consigning them to either history or opposition with National, just other lost voices in the wilderness.

Before this happens though, Ardern needs to use some of that steel I know she has and fire a few poorly performing ministers.

In my opinion, she should start with the Health Minister because he showed by his lockdown breaches that he thinks he is above the rest of the country.

The reality is Labour, basically, a lame-duck government overall should cruise back into power.

Is a coup likely in National? Who knows. There is one or two who want the job, maybe a guardian job until early 2023 when Christopher Luxon will have had three years in Parliament after getting a soft seat or high list position in 2020.

Will it make a difference prior to September 2020, probably not. National's only chance is if the public tires of Nanny State and living their lives in bubbles and revolving levels still with a rampant Covid-19.