News hub reports on Collins’ “brush off” from Ardern below https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/01/judith-collins-gets-prime-ministerial-brush-off-from-jacinda-ardern-over-housing-crisis-solution.html

Judith Collins has held out the olive branch to Ardern, saying we will work with you on housing. The problem is Labour doesn’t need National’s help to pass anything, Lanbour has a majority on their own and doesn’t even require support from the Greens to get things done.

Its a shame there wasn’t more cross party help when National was in power and wanted to reform the RMA. But as per usual, politicking was more important than serving the public. Labour can blame themselves here as much as National, as this cross party assistance would have made a difference years ago with RMA reform proposed by National. But cross party agreement seems to only come after events such as the Christchurch massacre.

The latest snub by Ardern is both predictable and inconsequential, even though it continues to show the arrogance of the student politicians that now have carte blanch rule over our destiny.

Still blaming National for 9 years of neglect, as meagan woods did recently, saying it was the last government that caused the housing crisis. It seems that Meagan Woods has forgotten that her party was the last Government, National was in power coming up to 5 years ago by the end of our winter, so it is a bit rich blaming National. You might as well blame Helen Clark at the same time.

Whilst many will think of Collins as showing maturity in offering bipartisan assistance, one would have to wonder if this would be the case if they had any scrap of power left after one of the most humiliating defeats in some time. If Act and National had enough clout to force Latour to rely on the Greens, would Collins be handing out an Olive Branch, or would she be dishing out insults? We will never know, but given the us verses them attitude of National and Labour, I doubt there would be the bipartisan attitude we require.

It is more likely a cry for some relevance in an era where we really should not be having any party with such an overwhelming majority. MMP strikes again (well technically not).

Given the reality that Labour has failed on everything they touched, like some perverse antonym of king Midas, the only reason Labour had such a massive victory can be almost solely attributed to the meteoric rise of COVID-19 and the weaponisation of the fear it brings. A distant second is the “kindness” of Ardern.

Lets see how well that kindness and good communication goes when no one on a modest income has a prayer of buying a house, when half the poorer communities are labeled as living in poverty and the wheels have more than wobbled off the economy.

But who knows. having predicted both the NZ and US election wrong, there is a better than average reality that these predictions are also way off. I somehow doubt it though.

Ardern is the kind and (those that have met her describe her as) nice and charming leader. But sometimes you need an experienced and business like head to get through tough times. Will her caucus have the wits and grit to get us through in one piece. If they do then they deserve to be in power. Time will tell