The preliminary results are in, and perhaps the best thing we can all do – me included – is take a deep breath and calm down.
New Zealand is feeling ragged and bruised. It has been a testing few years. We all need some recovery time.
The Covid pandemic had far-reaching consequences – I mean socially, politically and economically, rather than medically – that weren’t necessarily obvious at the time, but which played out in the election results.
On top of that we had catastrophic weather events of biblical proportions. These were not Labour’s fault, and to be fair, the government probably did as much as it could to mitigate the effects. But the damage and disruption caused by Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland Anniversary Weekend storms had an unsettling effect on the national psyche and may have contributed to a mood for change.
Now the people have spoken, and in the words of the late Mike Moore when Labour lost the election in 1990, the people are always right. It may be over-optimistic to suggest it’s a time for the country to heal, but it’s a time for the smoke to clear and the dust to settle.
Here in the Wairarapa, where I live, ousted MP Kieran McAnulty set an admirable conciliatory example by turning up at the election night celebrations of his victorious National rival, Mike Butterick, and delivering a generous and sincere speech of congratulations.
A quietening of social media would be helpful. Nothing does more to create the feeling that New Zealanders are at war with each other than feverish 24/7 online agitation by mischief-makers from across the political spectrum. But that may be a forlorn hope, judging by journalist and professional attention-seeker David Farrier’s Twitter post reported today in the Herald.
And speaking of journalists, I wonder whether the Parliamentary Press Gallery will take heed of this morning's blog post by Barrie Saunders. That too may be too much to hope for.
