Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

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 / Rotorua Daily Post

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

Rotorua Daily Post
3 May, 2020 11:00 PM4 mins to 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

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Photo / File

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Photo / File

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.

READ MORE:
• Mike Hosking: Politics is creeping into Covid 19 coronavirus response
• Covid-19 coronavirus: Pandemic fallout tracks political divide
• Premium - Political Roundup: Fixing the problem of money in politics
• Barry Soper: No place for politics in ghastly Covid-19 situation

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

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.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

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.

Discover more

Save the faves? Threats to vaping flavours upset dairies

08 May 11:00 PM

Covid 19 Coronavirus: No new cases in BOP, Lakes

03 May 01:19 AM

'Our businesses are depending on it': What our local councils are doing to support Bay businesses

04 May 08:35 PM

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.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

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.

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Rotorua Daily Post

Pair deny charges over death of Paige Johnson in alleged hit-and-run

11 Jul 12:26 AM
Rotorua Daily Post

Home-schooled students ride 755km to Parliament for equal sports access

10 Jul 11:07 PM
Rotorua Daily Post

Heavy rain warning issued for Bay of Plenty, up to 140mm expected

10 Jul 10:57 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Pair deny charges over death of Paige Johnson in alleged hit-and-run

Pair deny charges over death of Paige Johnson in alleged hit-and-run

11 Jul 12:26 AM

One man is charged with manslaughter and the other with being an accessory after the fact.

Home-schooled students ride 755km to Parliament for equal sports access

Home-schooled students ride 755km to Parliament for equal sports access

10 Jul 11:07 PM
Heavy rain warning issued for Bay of Plenty, up to 140mm expected

Heavy rain warning issued for Bay of Plenty, up to 140mm expected

10 Jul 10:57 PM
Light truck rolls on SH36, one seriously injured

Light truck rolls on SH36, one seriously injured

10 Jul 10:45 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

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
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP