Who won the final leaders debate on NZ TV tonight? Well it was a close battle between passionate David Cunliffe and a half-hearted John Key. The showdown was not unlike David verse Goliath with a demanding aura and stance of authority Cunliffe weathered the cheeky remarks of the Prime Minister situated in a superior possession and showed how underdogs can come out on top.
The decisive blows rained down from Cunliffe hitting John Key wear it hurt; issues of child poverty! I had to cringe when John Campbell quoted verbatim the statistics that 2/5 kids living in poverty in Aotearoa had a working parent in opposition to the Prime Ministers speech. John Key's disappointing figure of 11% made a mockery of his party even making the effort to check there facts let alone address the issues of child poverty in New Zealand. I for one despise any person that tries to minimise child poverty and John the nations not impressed.
Key walked into a second minefield and fell over when he tried to argue National had done more than enough to help manage the NZ housing market and protect peoples rights in the work force. It was comical seeing a man of net worth well into the tens of millions trying to justify a $14 an hour minimum wage. I doubt John would work for $14 an hour and expect to keep his family in check so why does he expect someone else to do the same and slave their guts out in the process. Hate to break it to the man but were not all living on Planet Key.
Thankfully Cunliffe was easily able to dispel the outdated capitalist rhetoric of Economics 101 presented by Key. And furthermore he offered sound solutions and a new theme of Government accountability to cold hard numbers (untampered). David made a promise to the nation tonight stating that Child Poverty was number one on his Labour governments agenda and that he would measure his success in politics by the results his Government will produce through supplementary measures National has been to selfish to proceed with.
He also went onto deliver Key another haymaker with strong does of humble apple pie when he offered a resounding "No" to the question of weather raising the minimum wage by "$2" would hurt the economy. I could hear families across NZ draw a sigh of relief when the labour leader stated that if anything Treasury has deemed it would strengthen the econmoy and raise up youth and families out of poverty. At seems at the heart of Labour's commitment to creating new jobs higher wages and homes is their commitment first and foremost to decisive action in the face of frigid National party almost adolescent in it's procrastination in addressing and improving living conditions for the majority living in NZ.
The winning punch that saw Key sent to the mat was somewhat self-inflicted due to his lacklustre closing address which saw him essentially give. His boring auto-pilot stupor saw Key stupidly speak of a "Multi-National" New Zealand that was also "Multi-Cultural". To me the confusing difference conveyed the thin facade of a National government in bed with corporate "Multi-National" greed lead by a product of it's own sad ideology. To not even be able to hide his deep and unending ties to capital, money and a "Multi-National" companies over the rightful place of Kiwi's struggling in the recession is the number one reason why Key's government should be thrown out by their bootstraps.
In vast contrast David delivered an evocative fully invested closing speech addressed not to money not to a corporatized "Multi-National" NZ but a future were New Zealanders come first, every-time. It's become painfully obvious Cunliffe is a man leading a coherent party that offers a vastly improved economic and social vision for New Zealand. Labour is a party were passion and human dignity are at the top of the political agenda and under Cunliffe's leadership they should take over the running of New Zealand as soon as the winning vote has been counted!
Moss Bioletti
