National’s New Wood
August 10, 2022
By NZB3
Peter Goodfellow, of a very old New Zealand politically involved family¹, has been succeeded by Sylvia Wood as new National Party President. The big change has coincided with the reversal of one of Goodfellow’s last big decisions: The election of Sam Uffindell.
Sam Uffindell was a sure-thing as a MHR, easily winning the safe seat of Tauranga a few weeks ago when old National Leader Simon Bridges retired. The old team of Bridges-Goodfellow was a contender for Executive but they’ve called it quits in the end.
Bridges is now to be the boss of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, replacing Michael Barnett. That’s interesting to me for two reasons. For one, Bridges is a Wellington/Tauranga guy not and Auckland guy so what business does he have going in to bat for Auckland commercial interests? Evidently that job is about power and personality not about community or localism (aka mana whenua.) Secondly, it’s interesting to hear the old name ‘Chamber of Commerce’ again after it had been re-branded ‘Auckland Chamber. This may indicate that Bridges has taken over the Chamber against the will of Barnett by power of proclamation. Once ‘the gallary’ pronounce this as NEWS all someone in Barnett’s shoes can do is take the exit handshake and go along with it as if he knew all along. Maybe that’s what happened here.
“Wood replaces Peter Goodfellow who has been party president for the past 13 years…is a human resources and employment relations specialist…she runs an HR and change management consultancy.” – Stuff (2022)
“The New Zealand Initiative used to be the Business Roundtable but they re-branded because they surrendered the term ‘business’ as a dirty word. I consider that as cowardly as the Auckland Chamber of Commerce doing the same thing by re-branding as The Auckland Chamber. By abandoning moral values embodied by noble and essential things, commerce and business, they are doing their enemies work for them at the meta level; Losing a war to win a battle.” – Realpolitik, NZB3 (2022)
“National MP Sam Uffindell has been stood down pending an investigation, National Party leader Christopher Luxon says.” – National MP Sam Uffindell stood down after more allegations surface, Stuff (August 2022)
Bridges’ old Tauranga seat is now Sylvia Wood’s to distribute since Uffindell has been rejected. She is making her move and her mark quickly as new Preisdent if, as I assume, this change is at her instigation. I must stress that I don’t know that Bridges used political gaming to create the Chamber vacancy and don’t know that Wood used political gaming to create the Tauranga vacancy. What I do accept though is that this is how the game is played. That is politics in New Zealand. It’s how your laws get made, it’s how elections are won.
I do mean ‘elected’ too. Wood was unanimously “elected” and Uffindell was “elected” and even Simon Bridges will be “elected” as Chamber boss yet to the cynic these matters were already determined beforehand. That’s why I consistently write Buy Election when others spell it ‘by-election’. Anarkiwi Politics 101.
Uffindell Uffindone
The morals of Uffindell’s transgression don’t particularly intersect with the politics. If The State wants you gone, innocent or guilty, you’re gone. What matters is how you wear it, if you can. And, he couldn’t. Sam was evidently part of a cycle of high school violence where abused kids pass it on to younger kids ritualistically. In his case, aged 16, in 2000AD, the act was worthy of his being invited to leave the boarding school (not same as an expulsion.) The Tauranga MP (for now) had been open and honest and squared that past up yet now, just as Wood comes into her power, it suddenly came up again and has been used to blast a smoking crater when Sam’s political career used to be.
National supporters blame the media and Labour for this event. Certainly, Labour have an incentive to change the news story from their poor polling. Yet this old boarding school story news is old and could easily have been used to stop Uffindell from being elected (June 2022) in the first place if anyone really cared about his suitability. Of course they don’t. Morality doesn’t come into it! Instead, this explosive detonator has been put in the bank to use later. It coincides with human resources and employment relations specialist Sylvia Wood entering the stage.
Wood must get rid of all the old wood, including Uffindell, Goodfellow’s wood, to replace with her own little blue tin soldiers. What an excellent deflection it would be if the media, her party, and all the useful idiots blame Labour for the ‘dirty politics’ of sending the old wood away! Don’t you think she’s capable of that? Remind yourself that it is her profession.
Politics in New Zealand isn’t about elected representatives these days. Never mind that “your MP” sits in the House of “Representatives” or spends your money on an electorate office and staff to help sell you the illusion they are local and helpful. Party leaders run their elected Members like cattle now and whip them into voting along party lines. This is happening more and more and the new Party Leader, Simon Luxon, is all for it.
Consider the so-called Electoral Integrity Act (2018) (aka Waka-Jumping Act) that gives Simon Luxon and Jacinda Ardern power to control the way their MPs vote. “When enacted, this bill will mean that the leader of a political party can write to the Speaker saying they believe that one of their MPs has distorted the proportionality of Parliament and may do so again. In other words, the MP has not voted with the rest of their caucus. As long as the leader has the agreement of two-thirds of the parliamentary party, the MP will lose their seat.”- Noted, Ref. 2018: Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Act, AHNZ
“National MPs will be under the microscope next week when their leader starts individual performance reviews. Christopher Luxon told political editor Jo Moir some of his caucus would have to change the way they do politics.” – Luxon’s new mantra won’t come easily to some MPs, Newsroom (2022)
If you think the new National leaders who have come along since, Luxon and Wood, will reverse this you’re wrong. One of his first acts upon taking power over National was to conduct PERFORMANCE REVIEWS to evaluate each member of his caucus! “His caucus has been busy filling out reports on their portfolio areas…all 32 MPs will sit down with Luxon and go through what their plans are and how they’ll do it in the coming months.” wrote Newsroom.
To Luxon “his” Members work for him and answer to him as if they are his own human resources. Like his staff at Air New Zealand, his old job. Certainly he would have partnered up with an employment and human resources specialist like the new Party President, Sylvia Wood. If not Wood herself. We don’t have political leaders, now, who need to earn their leadership status by convincing independent Members to support them and back them by choice.
When the House of Representatives started out there were not political parties at all, just ‘tails’ of followers who backed a leader or withdrew that support based on performance. Luxon and Ardern consider our elected representatives as their horse stable of livestock to send to the races or to war or to the knackers yard. Ask Sam Uffindell about that last part.
—
Image ref. Today FM
Ref. 1952: The Otara Project and 1931: New Zealand Broadcasting Board, AHNZ
Note: In current era of Slave Culture our population is scared of the rising Honor Culture cadre and tries to hold it back. As such, it’s happy to conduct a mob pile-on toward Mr Uffindell as the idealised neighbourhood bully.
Like Comment Share
