An utter shambles

Last week, the regime rammed through its deeply unpopular Regulatory Standards Act, imposing a radical Libertarian ideological straitjacket on all future actions by the New Zealand state. As part of the current regime, NZ First voted for the bill. And now, just a week later, they're promising to repeal it:

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has vowed to repeal the Regulatory Standards Bill (RSB) if re-elected next year.

It's prompted the bill's key proponent, ACT leader David Seymour, to warn Peters could be jumping ship to Labour.

Peters told Radio Waatea's Dale Husband he wanted the bill gone earlier on Thursday, having voted it through its third reading this time last week.

"It was their deal, the ACT Party's deal with the National Party. We were opposed to this from the word go but you've only got so many cards you can play.

"We did our best to neutralise its adverse effects and we will campaign at the next election to repeal it."

While its good to see they've decided the law is a bad idea, it would have been better if they'd made their opposition clear last week, when it mattered, rather than this week when it doesn't. But the problem for Winston is that this makes it clear that we just can't trust anything he says. He might promise something in an election campaign or even a coalition agreement, but he might change his mind a week later, or work within government to sabotage the policies he has supposedly pledged to support. No-one can rely on such a party - not the other parties they would need to work with to form a government, and certainly not the voters, who can't be sure what they'll be getting. But then, hasn't that always been the case with Winston?

Meanwhile, I guess we can enjoy watching the current regime slowly collapsing under the weight of its internal hatreds. And the sooner it all falls apart and we can throw them all out on their arses, the better.