It always used to be said that New Zealand was one of the most generous nations in the world per capita.
We knew right from wrong, and we weren’t afraid to stand up against far bigger countries when it came to moral issues.
Most Kiwis identified with the little battler label and were proud to have it as part of our national psyche.
We were comfortable being David to others’ Goliath because we strongly believed good would always prevail over bad, regardless of size.
But something has gone wrong with our leadership. Our politics and our politicians appear to be losing their way in expounding messages and policies which are progressive, empathetic, inclusive and just. In other words, doing what they can to make sure things are essentially right for as many people as possible.
This week’s punch to the stomach over barely signalled changes to pay equity law reveals a government which has clearly either misplaced, or lost, its moral fibre.
This coalition of the uncourageous is being led by a prime minister, Christopher Luxon, who needs to find some guts.
It could be argued, perhaps, that progressing what was going to be such an unpopular move because the government truly believed it was doing the right thing is actually courageous.
Unfortunately, the way the coalition went about it was far from that.
Pushed along by Act New Zealand’s Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden, the law change was deliberately kept from the public’s eye, and from a place where the public might be able to have any input or rail against it.
The way it was handled, and heard under urgency in Parliament, was sneaky. It also smacks of a guilty conscience.
Such behaviour is typical of those who fear public involvement might affect what they are promulgating, and which the instigators know deep down might not be the right thing for the country.
As others have pointed out, this is a coalition which thinks nothing of upsetting much of the country and wasting millions of dollars and many months on a Treaty Principles Bill which it said it was ultimately going to vote down anyway.
Yet this time, it slunk in something it knew it was going to do and deliberately kept us in the dark.
Explanations from Finance Minister Nicola Willis that it was secret because there were concerns of legal risks with claims now being heard don’t wash.
On such parlous reasoning, surely that would also be the case when it came to any changes to major legislation and the threat of leaks? Yet they still go through the select committee process and have regulatory impact statements.
There is still confusion too over the motivations for doing this now.
Act leader David Seymour is cheering it on as freeing up billions of dollars to ‘‘save’’ this month’s Budget, but Mr Luxon claims it was nothing to do with that.
The question now is how will Mr Luxon rebuild trust and support after going along with another damaging Act-led wheeze? It’s also worth asking, how has the government managed to sideline so many Kiwis in just 18 months?
Let us count the ways: broken promises over a new Dunedin hospital; rising unemployment and redundant public servants; appalling school lunches replacing hearty, locally made meals; dangerous speed-limit changes; the Treaty Principles Bill. And now this.
In case Mr Luxon and his Cabinet have forgotten, women make up 50% of the population, in fact 50.3% at the latest count.
That is a great deal of votes to jeopardise.
Women across the country, and especially those pursuing pay-equity claims, 33 of which have now stopped, have an absolute right to be angry about how this was slipped through.
They have the right to be angry with Mr Luxon, Ms van Velden, Ms Willis and all the women ministers who looked decidedly uncomfortable when the changes were announced.
We all have that right, for this was a low point among many for the coalition.
It is also a low point for New Zealand and our international standing.
It tells us the government needs its moral compass resetting.
