When I was doing Vote Chat with Bryce Edwards at Otago University on Friday he raised the good question of the political balancing act that surrounds how opposition political parties respond to a disaster, in this case the Rena. As an Opposition there is the risk that people will see criticism of the government as politicising the situation, being opportunistic etc. Equally part of the role of an Opposition is to hold the government to account, whatever the horrendous circumstances might be.
To get one thing out of the way straight up, no one is saying the Government is to blame for the Rena hitting the reef. I am also sure that John Key, Steven Joyce and Nick Smith are as disturbed as I am by the images of the oil on beaches and the death and injury of wildlife. Every New Zealander will want to see the damage from the accident mitigated and the environment cleaned up. What is a legitimate question though is whether faced with the incident the government showed the leadership that we should expect of them and acted as swiftly and effectively as they should have.
My take is that the government were flat footed and to keen to sheet blame and responsibility elsewhere rather than take the leadership role we want our government to take in times of crisis. Someone I worked with once said that people mostly want the government out of their way when things are going well, but they want them there yesterday when things go wrong. I think National got that wrong in the first few days of the Rena incident.
And criticism of this is not just coming from Labour, but also from people who might normally be described as friends of the government like John Roughan, Paul Holmes and even Matthew Hooten. Here is part of Hooten’s NBR column which is not on-line. (h/t Liberation)
Joyce failed totally to comprehend what the Rena grounding meant to the Bay of Plenty’, and ‘He did not see that, as transport minister and arguably the most powerful figure in the government after Mr Key, his role was to lead and improve the quality of the response, and ensure it was sufficiently empowered and resourced. When he spoke publicly, he demonstrated little empathy with locals, telling them there was no point going to the beach to clean up the oil, saying more was on its way and that it could take years to resolve anyway
Then there is the question of whether the government had done the work over the last three years to have us planned for a disaster like this. There are questions here too, with the freeze on funding for Maritime NZ and the failure to put in place the mechanism that would see more of the costs of dealing with the disaster fall on the ship company and less on you and me.
So, in the face of this disaster, we join with all New Zealanders in wanting to protect our beautiful coastline and all those, human and animal who inhabit it. But we also take our role seriously to raise the question- Where was the leadership?, and in this case it was sadly lacking.
How hard is it to get Matthew Hooton’s name correct???
I mean seriously?
I was stunned at the lack of immediate action and Key’s attampts to justify it just sounded awful. No-one expects services to rush in without a plan but every moment of delay in a case like this only makes the situation harder to deal with in the long run.
So true!
!
I’m wondering when Labour is going to tell all those families and worker in new Plymouth that if they get elected their jobs on the oil platforms offshore are on hold.
i’m not quite sure why people are being surprised by the utterly inadequate response by the government over this… it’s not as if they havn’t left any clues as to their general incompetence, and lack of interest in anything that doesn’t come with a flashbulb attached..
it seems we may be looking at a rapid disintegration of the house of cards this govt resides in…to the point of having their faithful make fools of themselves attempting to cover for them…..usually a good sign that the stage props are starting to sag…
there has been a lot to get upset about over this governments insane rush to join the americans in their headlong dive into the bering strait…. but this is the first time i have gotten really angry about the callous disregard the person who claims to be pm has shown toward the people in the bay of plenty, and probably beyond(how far will the oil go?) regarding the reality they face….. not just for the next few weeks, but possibly years…..
we won’t know whether prompt action by people willing to act immediately would have stopped, or reduced the need for the massive cleanup…..and the answers won’t be known until the national party has been removed from office…
what we do know, is that the government lost valuable time diddling around…enough time to make any serious pre-emptive action irrelevent…..
my grandfather had a word for people who talked a good fight, but never proved the boast… cowards…
If the Rena was owned by Warner Bros, the National government would be paying them for the inconvenience of our reef being in the way of their ship.
Come to think of it this will be the way it will plays out….. Liberian registry, Greek owners, Filipino crew, shell company who charters it. Good luck with getting any actual money out of the tangled maize
@ Whaleoil I agree. Labour would also have to tell those same families – sorry, no Welfare support for you as we’ve spent it all on those who choose to have children they cannot afford & creating dependency amongst middle class NZ so they can continue to ‘spend now & maybe pay later’.
The only thing I would say with the leadership is not that they haven’t done enough, but they failed to keep the public informed.
I think there was plenty of discussions around the best way to tackle the problem – it’s not like there is a manual for these things and of course everyone becomes an armchair expert when it is not them with the head on the chopping block, but they didn’t keep the public abreast of these discussions. This was their error.
In terms of “Then there is the question of whether the government had done the work over the last three years to have us planned for a disaster like this. There are questions here too, with the freeze on funding for Maritime NZ and the failure to put in place the mechanism that would see more of the costs of dealing with the disaster fall on the ship company and less on you and me.”
Well what did Labour do about it in their 9 years? Not alot. with these kinds of issues because the odds are in your favour, it is naturally to put them to one side.
Seems to me that Labour expects National to have done a whole lot more in their 3 years than what they did in their 9 years.
If you want to talk about disaster protection well, why didn’t Labour insure the CHCH were earthquake strengthened? Why did they consent to the Pike River Mine – on CONSERVATION LAND – being built?
Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Rebecca, the easy answer is that the new liability convention didnt come into place until 2008 and it WAS looked at by the select committee then but then the government changed. Its called the buck stops here.
Pike River construction was approved under National, and the supervision occurred under national, see buck stops here.
the fact it was under a National Park didnt cause the explosion. Coal mines are , you know, underground
@GWW yes every govt should take responsibility. The problem with this Labour party is that they seem to think National should take responsibility for more things in 3 years than what they did in 9 years.
Not sure what you mean re National when Carter approved the access arrangement in 2004 with coal production only starting in 2008 and the mine formerly opening in Nov of the same year….I am of the understanding the mine was built post 1999 so would there have been a code of compliance? If so I think it was fair for Brownlee to assume that the mine had been built to a satisfactory safety level (e.g. one Australia would have approved) given he had only been in office for a couple of weeks…..
Sure we expect a new government to hit the ground running, but to do everything in 3 years that Labour didn’t even attempt to do in 9 is a little bit on the nose…don’t you think?
Ultimately the current govt is always the one that is held accountable. But Labour don’t do themselves any favours by constantly coming out with rash, unsubstantiated statements.
They would have been far better to have behaved like grown-ups and approached JK as soon as the Rena had hit the reef and provided suggestions along any relevant expertise (do any Labour MPs have any on oil spills? Doubtful) as ultimately no one wants to see our coastline’s destroyed. Sometimes politics should take a backseat to the greater good.
@rebecca… give it up… you base your argument on no more than whale blubbers politically motivated assumption.. you realise, of course, that this approach is seriously flawed, don’t you?
you are doing no more than attempting to expand on what is a reprehensible, and morally bankrupt tactic taken by paid stooges which seeks to divert attention away from this govenments complete failure to show any kind of leadership on any issue you care to name…
if you have to inhabit that fantasy land where the govt waves it’s magic wand, and suddenly everything is fixed,voila!, then i feel sad for you…in the real world, the last labour govt spent nearly the whole time they were in office dealing with the aftermath of the last national party fiasco….. social, and economic destruction can be affected in one stroke of the pen…. rebelancing the dislocation caused by that stroke of a pen can take generations(assuming you don’t let the fools that started the rot back in to power)….
so your argument supporting john keys inaction is to berate the labour party for not all having super powers? are all your friends this naive?
bbfloyd: by all “my friends” I assume you mean the voting majority including the top 13% who pay all the taxes collected and benefits paid? High incomes and naivety are mutually exclusive.
Your comments have little validity and serve only to reinforce why Labour is struggling in the polls.
The demand for perfection is only valid when you yourself are perfect.
In a crisis like Rena it is far better to demonstrate a level of at least some emotional maturity than continually stoop to gutter politics.
Nothing from commentators like yourself has demonstrated that you are anything more than armchair observers. Observers who don’t have the expertise and therefore, should be at least trying to substantiate your comments before throwing about criticism.
@bbfloyed Agreed
Have a read of this and please note the date.
http://www.frc-law.com/files/pub_international-convention-civil-liability.pdf
Tried to edit above comment but unable. Anyways, is anyone able to advise as to whether this is the same convention as was set to be signed in 2008 or something completely different / updated?