Twin blows dent confidence in ministerial ranks, so will they affect morale among party faithful?

Is  the  government imploding?

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins  has  had  to sack  one of his  more effective (and  likeable) ministers, while another  (from the Green Party)  has  insulted  many of  the  adult  population.

For  his  part, Hipkins had appeared to  be shaping  up well since he took over the top job. Furthermore, he has been succeeding in turning  around Labour’s plunging poll ratings.

But  now  with the Nash disaster  and the Davidson insult, alongside  the nationwide strikes of  teachers, plus  the cost-of-living crisis, it may take  something  of  a  political miracle to recover.

Stuart  Nash was  already on a final warning, when Stuff revealed he had emailed business figures, including donors, detailing private Cabinet discussions. Hipkins said the most recent scandal was “inexcusable” and this incident alone would have seen Nash sacked.

He described the call as “black and white”, but he was still “gutted” to see Nash go.

“I’ve worked with Stuart for a long time. I’m absolutely gutted, to be quite frank,” Hipkins said.

Those  comments  suggest that  the  Nash disaster will have  punctured morale  not  only among his erstwhile  Cabinet colleagues   but also within the  Labour caucus.

As  others  have  noted,  Nash was  one of the few Labour ministers  who related  easily  to the  business sector. Hipkins   will have to  think hard   where  to  allocate the portfolios Nash  had held, including Economic Development,  Oceans  and Fisheries, and Forestry, all of  which  have been in the  spotlight  in election year.

 Meanwhile, another  embarrassment for Hipkins  came  from Green Party co-leader  Marama  Davidson who following a  transgender protest  in Auckland shared on social media the comment “I know  who causes  violence in the world. It is white cis men…who cause violence”.

Hipkins found an excuse for her  choice  of  words  in the  fact   she  had  been  struck by  a motor cycle  as she  was  leaving.

Though  Hipkins  found  an  excuse  for Davidson,  and  she  apologised  to him, it seemed she did not retreat much from the  key sentence.   

And that  raises  the issue of her performance as a  minister, in charge of a $114m programme to eliminate family violence  and  sexual violence.

As  the NZ Herald said in an editorial: “Few would concur that violence is solely the product of straight, white men…Davidson was wide of ministerial convention as well as  offside with fellow New Zealanders”.

So Hipkins may have eliminated  one ministerial embarrassment  but is  still  saddled  with another.

He may be  praying that there  are  no  more on   the  horizon.

After all, he  has had a torrid introduction to the role  of  being prime minister.