MARAMA DAVIDSON : LABOUR'S LOYAL SERVANT

Given her unswerving loyalty to the Labour Government isn't it time that Marama Davidson made it official and joined Labour?

GREEN CO-LEADER Marama Davidson might as well resign from the Green Party and join Labour. At least she'd make it official because throughout the two terms of this Labour Government she has acted both as a de facto Labour MP and a Labour minister. She barely has a word of criticism for the Labour Government and is quick to jump to its defence. Like the good Labour MP that she really is, she saves her criticism for the Labour Government's political opponents.

It comes as no surprise that Davidson that wasn't going to decline the opportunity to attack Maureen Pugh's comments on climate change. When asked if she though human activity was responsible for climate change, the National Party MP said 'It is not what I think. It is what I can prove. I am waiting on the evidence from the minister… I have yet to see what the evidence is that they are providing about that.'

But within a few hours and probably after taking some 'advice' from National leader Chris Luxon, she had walked back her comments. Said Pugh: 'I regret that my comments this morning were unclear and will have led some to think I am questioning the causes of climate change. I accept the scientific consensus that human-induced climate change is real and there is a need to curb greenhouse gas emissions.'

That retraction probably took the wind out any further criticism of her. But that didn't stop Marama Davidson putting the boot in, telling the AM Show that Pugh's comments were 'unbelievable' and 'a slap in the face to everyone battling the devastation caused by Cyclone Gabrielle.' 

We might well reflect on whether it was appropriate for Davidson to use the victims of Gabrielle as cannon fodder to fire at Pugh. But that's tribal politics. And it is an election year. And Davidson's got her big fat ministerial salary to protect.

Davidson's outburst against Maureen Pugh stands in stark contrast to her muted criticism of the Labour Government. After being appointed the Assistant Minister of Housing with special responsibility for homelessness, Davidson decided that her loyalty was first and foremost to the Labour Government. The victims of Labour's market-led housing policies have proven to be of secondary consideration. The number of people on the state housing waitlist might continue to rise but Davidson has had very little to say about it.

And, as of September of last year, roughly 4,000 households were living in motels, hotels and boarding houses contracted by the government to provide emergency housing. What was intended to be a temporary fix to the housing crisis has blown out into a full scale social disaster. And it's all been overseen by Marama Davidson. She should be raising a fuss, getting things done. She should at least be calling for an extensive state housing building program. But she isn't. That's because she doesn't want to risk embarrassing her Labour Government.

And when she decides to plunge into the area of climate change and get some media airtime in the process, she still can't get it right. Like her fellow co-leader James Shaw - and, apparently, Maureen Pugh - she thinks climate change is the result of 'human activity'. 

While James Shaw has his own reactionary ideological reasons for blaming climate change on 'human activity', Davidson clearly hasn't done her homework. According to a report published in 2017, 100 companies have been the source of more than 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions since 1988. Blaming climate change on 'human activity (i.e. you and me) is simply a dishonest but convenient way of deflecting attention from the fact that it is capitalism that is killing the planet.