India FTA Unites NZ First, Greens
National’s much-touted free trade deal with India featured in the Rural Issues Debate at Mystery Creek, Hamilton on Wednesday night.
Operatives from both sides of the political centre are airing out the ‘dirt files’ they have been sitting on to ankle-tap political opponents.
The self-appointed morality police that are NZ’s political reporters happily play along, largely ignoring policy-based stories (hard work) in favour of ‘gotcha’ character judgement stories (not hard work).
So far, voters have heard that NZ First harbours at least one candidate so far down the rabbit hole that they believe Covid vaccines continue to emit signals from the grave; an Act MP thinks (or once thought) that vaccines caused drownings; Te Pati Māori have had to apologise for their assertion that Māori are genetically superior, and that indigenous people should get housing priority over migrants.
PM Chippy has also demonstrated Labour will run a negative campaign, so the gloves are off and we’ll see more of the mud-slinging before polling day. Grab your popcorn and settle in!
