Quote of the Day - 22 July 2012

This morning's quote comes from a Stuff story on the National Party conference, and suggestions from John Key that the government he leads will use its electoral mandate to advance its well-publicised agenda; check this out:

Protest organiser, Jai Bentley-Payne, said the group would be out again today, and would be joined by the Auckland Action Against Poverty group and members of Aotearoa Is Not For Sale.

He said media reports that yesterday's response was lacklustre were wrong, and the protest had been successful, with around 400 participants.

Bentley-Payne said Key's "mandate" talk was meaningless. "A quarter of the population didn't vote last year. We want to connect with those people." 

We couldn't disagree more strongly with Mr Bentley-Payne. Those who chose not to vote at last year's General Election, and those who simply couldn't be bothered got the government that they deserve. The right to vote is special, and should always be exercised.

Put simply; if you didn't vote; don't moan. More than a million New Zealanders DID vote for the National Party, asset sales policies and all. National was able to form a government under the law as it stands, and accordingly National is entitled to advance its agenda. Moreover, National has a duty to those more-than-one-million New Zealanders who voted for the party to do what it was elected to do.

Some will doubtless complain that National's speed of reform is too fast. For others, whatever the Government does, it will not be enough, and it should have been done last week. Most of those million people though will be happy that the John Key-led is doing exactly what it promised to do throughout the 2011 election campaign.