13
C
H
R
IS(^) S
LA
N
E
“But I didn’t inhale” and Jimmy
Carter’s “Ah committed adultery in
mah heart many times” wouldn’t
get even a would-be-but-didn’t-
quite-dare sinner across the line.
Even so, what a friend National
could have in Jesus. The simple act
of promising to restore Him to Par-
liament’s prayer would probably get
the new party its first 2% overnight.
Calls to action in the Christian com-
munity are answered mob-handed.
Pasifika voters, traditionally assumed
to default to Labour, may be pastor-
directed Ngaro-wards in throngs.
The Government has put issues on
the table that do not sit well with
some Pasifika faithful, including
decriminalising abortion, the
marijuana referendum and even the
mooted recentralisation of schools
administration.
TWANGED NERVES
Still, a Christian party is not every-
one’s idea of a suitable partner,
underscoring the other potential
problem: divisiveness. National’s
social liberals will rue the tarnishing
of their brand by Ngaro’s arch-
conservatism. He has already twanged
nerves with his anti-abortion stance.
His Christian party would salt other,
fresher wounds, not least the Israel
Folau controversy and the fear of a
clampdown on freedom of speech.
Not that election campaigns will
necessarily command our attention
by the time this matter is resolved.
The nation could by then be riveted
to the next episode of The Twyford
Zone. Will it be “Wacky Phil opens
Ports of Auckland’s brand new tank
farm!”? Or “DoC relocates Westland
snail colony to ‘perfect’ new habitat:
Wellington’s CBD”? l
Twitter will smite down
a self-proclaimed
righteous politician
quicker than you can
type “Colin Craig”.
National MP Alfred Ngaro.
cup-of-tea, wink-wink business quite as willingly as
Epsom Nats have done in voting in Act candidates
all these years? The coat-tailing provision, intended
as a temporary safeguard to stop Parliament overly
fragmenting, leaves a nasty taste in voters’ mouths
23 years on. Even the most pragmatic National
voters might resent being gamed.
And since National has railed so bitterly against
the Government’s unorthodox coalition arithme-
tic, for it then to try this swizz hardly enhances its
moral authority.
Perhaps most riskily, the proposal snags on the
old closet door, and the inevitability of social media
prising it open. Never mind the Old Testament
God, Twitter will smite down a
self-proclaimed righteous
politician quicker than
you can type “Colin
Craig”. If any Christian
candidate has ever run
afoul of moral ortho-
doxy – cheated on a
spouse, done someone
over in a business deal
- it will become fodder.
These days, Bill Clinton’s