How often does National give an immediate warm hug to a long awaited Labour policy?

And how hard it must be for Labour to appear to welcome those congratulations.

Because the environment was supposed to be a circuit breaker for Labour, an area where they could make silly promises and leave National looking calculating and uncaring in the normal opposition stance of sceptical caution (however common sense that might be).

The speed and simplicity of the supportive statements from Bill English and Dr Nick Smith tell Labour strategists there will not be daylight between them on this issue. English left only one concession to National’s rational supporters – “Part of the package must be reform of the Resource Management Act to make sure that renewable energy projects can get off the ground more easily.”

 National strategy on this has been deft. The ground was prepared many months ago. It extended to having international research overseen by Geoff Thompson.

Nick Smith’s highlighting of what appeared to be incompetence and hypocrisy in DoE’s failure to follow up on a DoC proposal to kill possums to save trees, deflated the start of what was supposd to  be a week of eager public anticipation of Labour leadership, then delivery.

The lack of political combat could deprive the issue of the  oxygen needed to fire it up. new Zealand could be the beneficiary if it remains a matter of interest only to interest groups and experts. Electioneers will have to find something else to grandstand on.