Had enough yet?

It has been a long three years.

I just did a count and since National came into power I have written 432 posts.

Many of them have been written in anger. I cannot believe the callous cruelty and incompetence that has been shown by this Government.

In no particular order it has:

• Sabotagued the country’s climate response at a time when action is more important than ever.
• Stoked a series of Trumpian culture war battles just to keep their base happy.
• Continuously attacked Maori, te Titiri, te Reo and te Ao Maori as some sort of reflexive opposition to anything that is not European based.
• Punched down on the poor. Think benefit cuts, drug testing of beneficiaries and move on orders to mention just a few policies.
• Drove health into the ground. Every week there is a new horror story about overfull emergency wards, kids with cancer having their chemotherapy treatment postponed, horrendous waiting list to see doctors while at the same time this Government has stifled the training and hiring of health professionals.
• Failed miserably at creating jobs. When National came to power the unemployment rate was 4.7%, and the Ukraine War and the associated disruption as well as Covid were major contributions to this. Now the rate is 5.7%.
• Engaged in the most extraordinary levels of corruption by fast tracking large resource consent applications lodged by entities associated with major donors.
• Disefranchised tens of thousands of kiwis to improve its electoral chances.

And National is shyte at the thing it claims to be good at, running the economy. This is because National thinks that to be a good economic manager you have to allow the cruelty of market forces to operate with no restrictions.

This has never worked. It just creates misery.

Christopher Luxon is the worst Prime Minister of my life. Even Rob Muldoon wasn’t this bad, just.

Voting rates are extraordinary. Already 1.44 million kiwis have voted. Voting rates are well ahead of 2023 and although they are behind 2020 that was the Covid election.

There is a palpable sense of a desire for change.

Current polling suggests that things are finely balanced although National and NZ First are both struggling and Labour has recently gained some really important momentum. The US election results show that the polls can underestimate the desire for change.

I hope that good kiwis will respond to the cruelty and incompetence that this Government has engaged in by voting it out.

These are the last words of anger I will write this term. Hopefully on the other side there will be a change.

Make sure that you and your whanau vote. The future of our wonderful country depends on it.