Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Sandringham stabbing reflects badly on the Government

Well, I suspect many of us would’ve had the same reaction when we saw the news alerts on our phones last night.

That a retailer had been stabbed to death in a store. And that was thinking, we knew this was going to happen. Because we did, didn’t we? 

With all those ram raids, daylight robberies, tobacco thefts, we could see this coming. 

I’m not going to lay blame on anyone for this other the person who did it. Because no one put the knife in their hand. They did it, it’s their fault.

But I’m talking about the politics of this.

Because this is very, very bad for the Government, but especially for Jacinda Ardern. 

The public fury at what’s happening to our shopkeepers and shops is at fever pitch.

We have bystanders now chasing and confronting robbers in baklavas out of sheer frustration at the fact that the authorities seem to not be doing enough.

People are going to be very angry that it has now claimed a life.

And they will blame the Government because it is the Government they look to, to do something. 

And nothing has been done other than a pitifully slow roll out of bollards to a handful of shops.

It doesn’t help Labour that they are perceived as ‘soft on crime’.

They’ve repealed the three strikes law, they’ve given millions to the Mongrel Mob, they’ve emptied the prisons, and they’ve admitted jail is not a solution for them. 

This murder couldn’t have happened in a worse place for Jacinda Ardern, because it’s in her electorate.

These are her people, who voted her into Parliament personally. So where is she? Once again, missing in action. 

The smart politics would’ve been to put her on the first plane out of Auckland this morning.

To be seen on the ground with these people, showing she cares and showing that her Government will take this matter in hand and fix it.

But she didn’t do that.

In fact even in Hamilton today, which has become a centre of ram raiding, she didn’t visit one retailer that had been ram raided.

Sunny Kaushal of the Dairy and Business Owners Group has asked her for an urgent meeting.  

She’s dismissed it, says he met with Chris Hipkins three weeks ago. Apparently that’ll have to do, as if a man in a shop hasn’t just been murdered. 

This is bad for the Government and Jacinda that this murder happened last night.

But what’s worse is that they aren’t doing anything to signal that they actually care today.

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