Comment: Gregor’s new National Party is a stain on our politics

written by u/SoSaturnistic

One would have thought the National Party, unstable after already shedding two leaders this term in short succession, would have finally landed at a stable and responsible point of leadership when the party selected u/Gregor_the_Beggar as its leader in Parliament. After all, this individual has been seen as something of a power behind the throne across many political parties, including the defunct ACT and Liberal parties. Yet with all his experience, Gregor’s leadership has only ushered in an era where the National Party’s strategy to regain power has revolved solely around being loose with the truth, if not outright lying.

For all their faults, the previous two National Party leaders at least went through the motions of presenting an alternative vision to the country. In the case of Winston_Wilhelmus_4, there was that huge manifesto pushed out during the election. And in the case of the last National Party leader, we saw the release of an alternative budget to display a different economic vision. Gregor has made no such effort and has made no effort to define his leadership on policy lines even though he has already had the chance on a number of occasions already, either through the ongoing by-election campaigns, the party press, or even his shadow cabinet announcement.

This harks back to the days of a failing Liberal Party brand, where that party consistently lied, smeared, and manipulated its way to a position in politics that it frankly never deserved. While some further to the left may say that the Liberal position was better in terms of policy than that of the past two National Party leaders, I can only disagree. That this man has gone from mustering the votes to pass a Green budget during his ACT days to championing a radical neoliberal budget which slashes expenditure and privatises multiple state assets shows all that needs to be said; Gregor has demonstrated a clear lack of integrity and will go wherever the wind takes him to advance his personal career be it by veering to the left or the right.

Already, we see indications of a desire to shift back towards the old Liberal way of doing business. Gregor announced as much during his shadow cabinet announcement by referring to his days as a Liberal foreign affairs spokesperson as a positive mark in his favour; this was a time when he pushed his long-standing Fijian ultranationalist views to fore during the Fijian-instigated aggression over the Minerva Reefs. We must be clear: there is no room to accommodate invaders. In a recent Bugle of Liberty article, long considered Gregor’s personal mouthpiece to the public, he once again chose to impersonate someone under the name of “Marcus Lockheart” and in doing so propagated falsehoods around the way public finance works. The central premise around it was framing the expiry of past multi-year spending plans as “cuts”; in fact, real terms current expenditure has only grown to support the government’s budget priorities. If this was not a lie, and I do believe it to be so, it is only an indictment of the National Party spokesperson’s fundamental lack of understanding about the way public finance operates in this country.

Yet this economical attitude to truth does not simply begin and end with Gregor personally. In recent days we have seen baseless and ridiculous claims appear across the country in recent by-election campaigns. The most embarrassing of these lies with National Party newcomer BestInBounds, who has only parroted the tired line that the government has not done anything, either in terms of budget appropriations or actual legislation, to deal with issues that tangata whenua face in this country. It is hard to see how this is borne out by facts though, given that Mr BestInBounds has even voted on a few items that pertain to such issues, including a bill tabled by the former Minister for Māori Affairs u/CheerfullyPutrid. Rather than put out a positive vision, we have seen this candidate even double-down on the falsehoods in an embarrassing attempt to cover up for the National Party’s clear political blunder.

Voters should not be taken for fools and they ought to see Gregor’s National Party for what it really represents: a visionless political entity only interested in snatching power and willing to do whatever it takes to get it. We know nothing of Gregor’s actual goals for the country. Instead we only know a character who has dedicated his political life to obscuring fact and mastering the art of spin. If the National Party continues down this path I only worry for what the future holds.