Tuesday, 01 July 2025 11:25

Be afraid

Written by The Hound

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OPINION: Your old mate hears some of the recent uptick in farmer confidence has slipped since the political polls started leading a bit to the left, away from the current coalition of National, Act and NZ First.

It's way too early to panic and polls this far our are usually a 'protest' of sorts, with punters showing frustration rather than actual voting intent.

However, there are three good reasons to worry if the trend sets in: Labour, Greens and Te Pati Māori.

For instance, the policy lunacy the Greens are touting - to triple the government debt threshold to 60% of GDP, described by them as "carefully calibrated radicalism" - makes the Grant Robertson and Jacinda Ardern six-year lolly scramble seem fiscally conservative by comparison.

The Greens go as far as to describe fiscal restraint as "outdated 'orthodoxy' rooted in the 1980s".

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Dreams aren't plans

OPINION: Milking It reckons if you're National, looking at recent polls, the dream scenario is that the elusive economic recovery finally roars to life.

If voters see some growth and wages rising faster than prices, the government could say they've "fixed" things as they ride into the next election.

Back here on Earth though, the economy they inherited is a basket case, and the long-term headwinds are fierce.

Political commentator Liam Hehir says, "dreams are not plans" and if the turnaround doesn't come in time, National may have no choice but to go negative.

"Everybody wants to fight on the economy if they can. But when neither side has a compelling story, the contest shifts to other issues. That's not new. In fact, it's the stuff of politics everywhere, always."

Wrong focus

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Burn the village

OPINION: There's an infamous term coined by a US general during the Vietnam war, specifically in reference to the battle of Ben Tre: "We had to burn the village to save it."

Purist problem

OPINION: The sudden departure of Jim Ward, manager of Molesworth Station for 24 years, highlighted some major dysfunction in the way conservation estate is managed in this country - the biggest problem, as the Hound sees it, being idealogues who harp on about "taonga" and use all means possible to block sensible commercial operations on conservation land.

Drill baby, drill!

OPINION: While the destruction of NZ's oil and gas industry by Jacinda Ardern's band of merry vandals was virtue signalling on a heroic scale - producing no environmental benefit whatsoever - the politician vowing to make that industry whole again, Shane Jones, is not above a bit of virtue signalling of his own.