Willie Jackson: Vision, hope and compassion will beat lies in NZ

“Jacinda Ardern has touched people and made them feel like they can believe again.” Image: TDB

OPINION: By Willie Jackson

Never before has Labour come from 23 percent to be neck and neck with National. Jacinda has touched people and made them feel like they can believe again and that is a force that cannot and will not be told by rich right-wing broadcasters to go home and be quiet.

Now is the time to show National that lies, deception and deceit will not be rewarded by the people of this country. Let National learn that vision, hope and compassion will always beat cynicism, corruption and venal self-interest.

Rather than tell us why after 9 years they have failed the homeless, the first home buyers, the mentally ill, the hungry kids, the workers on flat wages, the women on gender biased wages, our waterways choked with cow filth, the children in underfunded and overcrowded classrooms and a health system strangled by debt – rather than tell us why after 9 years they’ve failed each of those segments of our society, National have spent this entire campaign lying about Labour.

I am sick of it! It is disgraceful and desperate behaviour that undermines the trusted positions they hold.

There is no $11.7 billion dollar hole in Labour’s budget. It is a total lie.

Not one New Zealander will pay more in income tax than they are paying now if Labour win! Another complete fabrication by National!

Dangerous falsehood
And as for Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett’s claim that the only reason inequality is so high is because of the Christchurch earthquake and not deeply flawed social policy – well, anything that comes out of Paula’s mouth is questionable at the best of times, but trying to blame inequality on a natural disaster is a delusional dangerous falsehood.

And I was rapt that Phil Twyford gave it to her and the National Party this morning on the AM Show and said it how it was, which was National are without doubt, just a bunch of liars.

The thing that gets me though is that National know they are lying, and then they are supported by a right-wing New Zealand media.

Take the latest Colmar Brunton Poll – added together, Labour + Greens + NZ First will be the new government, but is that the story the right-wing media are telling you?

They are saying that Jacinda’s “fairy dust” has failed her, that the momentum has stopped and that anyone wanting real change this election should just go home, head bent with their tail between their legs for daring to hope.

Once in generation victory?
I call that out and denounce it.

This will be a once in a generation victory if you and your friends and whanau vote.

I will never stop fighting for the people – Māori, Pasifika, women and working class; and I call on each and every decent New Zealander to rush to the voting booths now and bring in a new empathy and a new direction.

Vote as if your life depended upon it – because for many of our children, sick, elderly, brown and poor, it really does.

Kia kaha!

Willie Jackson is an independent Māori broadcaster and list candidate for the Labour Party. This column is republished from The Daily Blog with permission.