How did it all come to this....worse Aotearoa/New Zealand maritime environmental disaster

The recent squirming performance of our Prime Minister (in response to contrary accounts of Standard and Poor's recent downgrading of NZ's credit rating), the tortured experiences of many Christchurch residents, the tragic revelations in the Pike River coalmine disaster, and now the fumbling response to the grounded cargo vessel in the Bay of Plenty leaves me feeling somewhat disturbed at the vacuum in leadership in this country.  How did it all come to this?

I can't help but feel we have reached yet another crossroads in our history.

Essentially Aotearoa/NZ is bereft of leadership, infrastructure, and vision, a perfect storm that will hopefully sideline the incompetent, the dishonest, and the corrupt and enable the rise of informed, committed, dynamic and visionary people.

This is also coming through in our research on Ru Whenua, with several informants arguing that the arrival of head office (often from Wellington) lead to a slowing in response efforts. Too many middle and senior managers just don't have the talent or the courage to make a call that others will respect and follow. Our technological and expertise capcity is seriously degraded, with many disaster responses reliant on equipment and experise sourced from offshore leading to frustrating delays in time-sensitive responses.

And our leaders seem to lack the words, the insight, and the commitment to a) solve and b) prevent future recurrences. While the Labour Party must now regret not replacing the misfiring Phil Goff a year ago, we go in to an election with little analysis, poor coverage, and few options.

But I sense a growing disillusion, even anger.

This may yet be an interesting wee election...

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