‘Oh no they’re not!’ will have been the immediate reaction of most New Zealanders to Chris Hipkins’s launch of the slogan  ‘In it for you’ which he hopes will swing voters back to Labour in the October elections. Collectivist pronouncements are a feature of this disastrous government, as with his claim that, ‘We have been failing as a country to deal with youth offending.’

The country is in no mood to be settled with collective guilt. Those who have been failing include not only inadequate parents but government agencies, the police, and judges imposing risible sentences on young offenders. Similarly, a minority of part-Maori extremists claim to speak for ‘our people’ – which they demonstrably don’t. In fact, one of the worst failures of successive governments in this country has been ignoring the views of the conservative majority and allowing themselves to be pressured by highly vocal activists.

For example, the sheer folly of our now markedly unproductive country establishing, under Jacinda Ardern’s virtual rule, yet another holiday, the recent Matariki Day, bringing the workforce to a standstill – apparently to highlight the  importance to Maoris of the rise of the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, marking a change in season. Its first-year introduction cost already struggling businesses and industry an estimated $470 million, ruinous for so many, but also utterly farcical, as part-Maori friends and acquaintances (there are no longer any full-blooded Maori in New Zealand) freely admit their own parents and grandparents never referenced Matariki, nor engaged in any particular celebrations.

In it for us? There is no evidence whatsoever that the Labour coalition, indefatigably concentrating on sowing divisiveness throughout the country, granting greater rights to those identifying as part-Maori (even issuing diktats to the medical profession that anyone with Maori ancestry must take precedence for treatment over those of any other ethnic descent) is ‘in it’ for any other reason than to destroy our democracy.

Its attack continues with the Electoral Reform Report, ostensibly established to consider how to make New Zealand’s electoral system more fair, clear and accessible. Given the chicanery of this present government, it is no surprise it does nothing of the sort.

For example, a snapshot of five out of ten recommendations (there are 100 in total) specifically focuses on Maori rights and related issues. Directly contradicting its terms of reference, the entrenchment of the Maori electorates is recommended – although long recommended as due for abolition, given the introduction of MMP (proportional representation). With never any definition of exactly who is Maori, it is envisaged such claimants can choose to vote away from their own district, if they claim an ancestral connection. Too bad about any other New Zealanders who may also have connections to other places, preferring to vote there. This thoroughly undemocratic document proposes greater rights to those with a smidgen of Maori ancestry.

But why? And the Hipkins’s government has other questions to answer. How has it successfully managed to steer the country towards economic disaster? New Zealand is now in recession. Far from any effort to increase productivity, the government has been waging virtual war on the farming community, using the canard of excessive CO2 to force reducing the numbers of livestock, and allowing the selling of prime farmland to overseas investors to plant with pine trees, thus permanently destroying any future possibility of planting crops there for food – at a time of a global food shortage.

Reportedly, New Zealand now has the worst balance of payments deficit ever recorded of $33.8 billion as we live off other countries’ savings, piling up debt. StatsNZ recently published figures showing New Zealanders’ total net worth declined over the past 18 months by 10 per cent or $230 billion ($120,000 per household). Government finances have worsened with debt $5 billion more than the May budget, and a 68 per cent increase in government spending from 2017.

Moreover, well-bribed mainstream media do not augur well for impartiality with regard to the upcoming October election. For example, our major media networks refuse to allow reputable scientists space to challenge the man-made global warming scam. And shockingly, the conservative Family First organisation has had a newspaper advertisement cancelled by multiple news outlets at the eleventh hour – apparently because these outlets dislike Family First seeking to promote a petition about the dictionary definition of ‘What is a woman?’; one supported  by the overwhelming majority of New Zealanders

What about the shocking state of our heavily pot-holed roads, neglected in favour of costly and failed initiatives to replace cars by bikes – impracticable for most people, many of whom are also less inclined to favour public transport, given the greater chance of sharing circulating viruses? Millions have been spent exploring extravagant transport projects such as an Auckland Harbour bike bridge, and light rail to the airport – while road maintenance is neglected, and centralisation in health and education incurs extra costs for no tangible benefits.

‘In it for you’ is a hollow claim from an MP whose own record of mis-achievement in government is clear.

What about the push to punish free speech by apparatchiks claiming that ‘misinformation’ causes real harm – while themselves publishing misinformation, such as an ability for individuals to change sex simply by willing it? What of a country where a conviction for being an accessory to murder gets merely home detention instead of imprisonment; where youths on a prison roof are given fried chicken as a reward for coming down; where, as has now happened, a violent young man who broke into a home and sexually assaulted a young woman – subsequently continuing to threaten her – gets home detention instead of imprisonment, reportedly yelling ‘Cracked it!’ after the judge’s verdict. Braceleted and allowed on a work site, he subsequently shot and killed two construction workers, seriously wounding others, before himself being shot by the police – after which our Prime Minister makes another of his collectivist claims that, ‘The whole country mourns’.

Who would not grieve for those who lost their lives, and for families who will never see them again? But what the whole country is asking is how we have come to this, where violent criminals are let loose, and neglected children engage in ram-raiding, threatening shop-owners and ruining businesses, while absconding from school? ‘In it for you’ is completely disingenuous, if not downright dishonest.