TUREI LEFT HIGH AND DRY BY BOTH THE GREEN'S AND LABOUR

Metiria Turei is left twisting in the wind by both the Labour Party and her own Green Party.

THE SUSTAINED MEDIA ATTACKS on Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei have been grossly disproportionate to her "crimes'. Two decades ago, a twenty-something Turei fiddled the welfare in order to provide for her child and - gasp - we learnt she was once registered to vote in an electorate she was not living in so she could vote for a friend.

This week, in the face of the media witch hunt, she was forced to concede any possibility of being a cabinet minister in any coalition government led by Labour.

Have the baying jackals of the media and their political friends got their pound of flesh now? Is TV3's Jemma Lynch - who uncovered Turei's electoral irregularity - pleased with her work? Is ACT's David Seymour happy with the amount of airtime the media have allowed him to berate Turei and promote himself? Perhaps failed politician Christine Rankin is thinking of mounting a comeback on the back of her media appearances attacking Turei?

Can you smell what I've been smelling? Yes, its the smell of self righteous indignation and political self interest.

As I've said before, Turei's real crime was that she broke with the neoliberal consensus and asked some uncomfortable questions about poverty in this country; about how we treat the poor, how we justify the subsistence existence they are forced to endure, the ever widening inequality gap. To her credit, Turei, has continued to ask those questions.

They remain unanswered by a corporate media joined at the hip with the political and economic elite of this country.

Unfortunately while Turei was prepared to 'go over top' when she looked around to see who was coming with her she found..no one. She was effectively abandoned by both the Labour Party and her own Green Party to fight this battle all by herself.

On Friday she was forced to prostate herself before the media - while co-leader James Shaw was present merely to hold her hand while she did it.

Meanwhile if the new Labour Party leader wants us to believe her Labour Party will be "bold" that "boldness" wasn't evident in Jacinda Ardern's treatment of Turei. Ardern could have spoken out in support of Turei and the issues she was raising. And, if she was feeling really "bold", she could of announced Labour was supporting the Green Party's welfare policy of increasing benefits by 20 percent while removing Work and income's punitive sanctions regime. But Ardern wasn't going to 'just do it'.

It would of been a signal that this Labour Party was indeed going to be different under Ardern. But all Turei received from Ardern was a warning that if she did not rule herself out of Cabinet, Labour would.

Welcome to Labour's new boss...just like the old boss.