Almost every major error and meltdown in Dem/left politics, from post-left fash apologism to popularist left-punching cringe, comes from fatally flawed attempts to solve what I call the Upper Left Quadrant problem. Here is the chart, and the fundamental problem: /1
Huge fun to play with that and alter it a bit for NZ – it isn't exact but fun none the less!
This chart explains *so much* about modern NZ politics. What it says, simply, is that almost all the actual persuadable voters in the electorate aren't "moderates."
They're cross-pressured extremists and…kinda fashy. They're socially bigoted and economically leftist. Needless to say, this is not great. It's a huge impediment for making progress. But it's also highly inconvenient for the major ideological factions in NZ politics.
Let's start with "No Labels" style centrists. These are corporate folks who push the idea that most persuadable voters are socially liberal but economically conservative. TOP types. This is FLATLY FALSE. As you can see, there is almost NO ONE in that bottom right quadrant. The suburban TOP liberal does exist, of course – but their numbers are actually quite limited and they are far less economically conservative and more socially liberal than usually given credit for. They're not really persuadable and likelier to vote for Chloe than Seymour.
Now let's take the socialist left. It is tempting to look at this chart and say "hey, there's opportunity for left populism here! Let's persuade some of these folks!" I myself made that error in 2016, thinking that left populism could win many of them over. That was…wrong. It was VERY wrong. The Trump presidency proved it. He went full Paul Ryan on economics, & lost none of his supporters over it. Trump-curious Upper Quadrant types didn't shift left. Instead, Bradbury/Trotter types went head over heels to the far-right in hatred of liberals.
Then there are the Labour party populists like Chippy and McNaulty. They look at the Upper Left Quadrant and think "hey if we just toned down the social liberalism then these folks would vote for a milquetoast liberal party." Yeah….no. That doesn't work, either. An upper-quadrant voter who likes superannuation but hates LGBTQ people isn't going to vote Labour over National because you sidearmed trans people a little bit. A racist who wants no government spending for Maori only isn't going to vote Labour if you demure on diversity initiatives. Whether economic or social leftism overreaches sometimes is debatable on its own merits as public policy when it comes to, say, housing policy or co-governance. But it's worthless as an *electoral* strategy for reaching the Upper Left Quadrant voter. And, of course, the NZ political right is eating itself alive over this problem. It turns out no one actually believes in Rogernomics / Luxon conservatism. Economic conservatism was always a front for hurting the marginalised (see National's housing announcements). No one wants what David Seymour is selling, and it shows.
The only real way to solve the Upper Left Quadrant Problem is by gradually sorting it out of the electorate, and being economically left-populist in the mold of younger voters. Younger voters are overwhelmingly bottom left quadrant (econ & soc left). Let the fash sort with the fash into the upper right. Let liberals and the left sort with each other.
Leftists: stop trying to placate the fash with anti-globalism. Centrists: stop trying to be "anti-woke" or appeal to non-existent bottom-right quadrant voters. The country is going to get a lot more polarized before things get better, and things will only get better when the Jacinda/Chloe-aligned under-45s who vote Labour/Greens +20 points are a bigger and bigger share of the electorate. We're not getting any more conservative with age.
I was also struck by how thin the bottom right quadrant is. We are assailed by corporate types claiming to be socially liberal but economically conservative. It's maybe not actually much of a thing, which suggests it's more of a tactical pretense than a genuinely felt position.
The crowded and conflicted upper left quadrant is playing out in front of our eyes with the trans rights slanging match. Your seem to imply that for people in this conflicted quadrant, one side of the conflict will be more determinative of their actual voting than the other. And that not understanding this will lead to naive tactics by politicians. That's a very interesting idea.
I tend to agree that the way forward is for these two conflicted quadrants to be cleaned out by generational change. And these quadrants are not in fact coherent places to occupy. Fundamentally, this is because there are not separate 'social' and 'economic' dimensions. The 'economic' is entirely a social creation – and disembedding the economic from the social and pretending it has immutable 'laws' like some sort of science, is a source of many problems. It also means that these social/economic matrix analyses are ultimately built on a false assumption and we probably need a better tool.
An unfortunately worded piece of rhetoric copy-pasted from American corporate democrats. According to the author, the working class is "fashy", "socially bigoted", "an impediment to progress", "Trump-curious", "in hatred of liberals", "racist" blah blah blah.
Evidently such reprobates are an "Upper Left Quadrant Problem" to be "gradually sort[ed] out of the electorate".
Pure divisive bullshit. This is a massive constituency that would have carried Bernie or Corbyn to power on a wave of people power, but was stuffed by their own parties, and awful slanders in the MSM, similar to the foregoing comment. Apparently the working class is not allowed to participate in democracy.
I was just wondering how those here feeling about Hipkin's seeming to almost be trying to out-National National at the moment.
I get the thing about wanting to win the election, and competing for the middle ground etc. But Hipkins was part of the government that introduced a lot of the things he has since dumped. And, I wonder, if he is focussed so much on the pragmatism of winning that he is in danger of losing his ideological soul.
Nah tsmithfield. He's centre of the political road. Always has been. Pragmatism is his middle name. He won't veer left or right from his current position because that is pretty much his ideological standpoint.
The one thing he has got in spades is a commonsense, steady as she goes outlook which is more than the right-leaning leadership has demonstrated at this point in time.
If you'd asked me 5-6 years ago when Corbynism was riding high, AOC was in full flight and Trump had trashed the arch centrist blast from the past Hillary Clinton I would have said centrism was dead and buried.
However since then, we've witnessed two things – first, the traditional political right self-radicalising in and out of office to ever more extremist culture war positions, from Fidesz in Hungary, the Tories (Suella Bravermann anyone?) in the UK, the MAGA/QANON Trump cult in the GOP, the increasingly extremist Morrison/Dutton in government in Aussie to the radicalisation of National's post 2020 rump caucus with a gowing number of vanguardist evangelical culture warriors using prosperity doctrine as a template to justify very unpopular economic policies.
Secondly multi-global crisises like COVID and various natural disasters have placed competent government back in the centre of voter concern.
The self-radicalisation of the traditional right and the need for good crisis management has given a new lease of life to centrism's main pitch – competent technocratric managerialism and an appeal to neoliberal incrementalism.
As long as the right remains distracted by culture wars and unserious about governing then centrism will hang on.
Just how viable it is in the long term for a healthy democracy to have as your sole realistic electoral options a choice between a bunch of unelectable increasingly far right culture warriors and the least worst centrist government that can be conjured up I'll leave to the reader to speculate.
Ah well, pretty much what I said @2.1 but with the I's dotted and T's crossed in a manner few can achieve. Sanctuary is one of them. We have others too. 😉
I don't think Chippy has dumped anything. I think he has put things aside until after election when all these non dumped things will be back on the full burner. He never voiced any concern about unpopular policy options during the Jacinda Ardern days.
Maybe rename or re-brand a few of the unpopular policies (see 3 / 5 / 10 waters or what evs it is called now)if you like but still the same stuff that upset people to the point where Jacinda felt they needed to leave in order to not tank Labour altogether on election day. And yes, i know their tank was empty.
Not sure if he has achieved that. Winter is coming, it is going to be a hard winter for many – and i mean those that receive no support from government, and Labour has no policies articulated for that discontent that will be coming in with the cold.
National, will do what National always does, so i have no expectations there.
… upset people to the point where Jacinda felt they needed to leave in order to not tank Labour altogether…
That scenario might fit your embittered political outlook Sabine but it happens to be wrong. Jacinda Ardern left because SHE had physically and mentally tanked after five of the most grueling years any NZ prime minister has ever had to face. The fact she lasted as long as she did is a testament to her courage and determination in the face of multiple crisis and a level of manufactured vitriol never seen in this country before.
I am being realistic. The polls had Jacinda in the lowest numbers possible, and that was as much a part in the decision making then Jacinda understanding that they had not enough left in the tank to fight against that. Did they receive bad press, yes and sometimes it was warranted and other times it was not, did they take decisions that in the end back fired, yes, that too, but the day they left and resigned their polls were in no where land, or at least not good enough to assure a guaranteed win. For the record, i was equally unimpressed with John Key resigning for very much the same reason. I believe that if someone has the slightest doubts that they can not do the job, they should not apply for it.
Unless of course you think that Stuff is embittered.
As for Jacinda being a she/her – no thank you, that won't fly anymore. Unless they have claimed that they are a women with she/her pronouns i am staying on the safe side and use they/them and not assume their gender identity. Sex no longer is an arbiter of anything.
After all we currently have a PM who can not define what a women is unless they have a pre-formulated answer to the questions ‘ what is a women’ or ‘can you define women’.
So that is not helping in identifying who is a women.
And that includes the idiocy of proclaiming to have half of cabinet being 'women' when they can't identify or define what a women is. The 50% could be made up of males who identify as women. IT is a meaningless statement, not worth the paper it is printed on.
Jacindas years in government were no more grueling then the years of the CHCH earthquakes, world war 1 and two, and the Spanish influence to name a few hard years for people who ran the country. In fact, one could argue that they had it alright, as NZ as a whole was happy to help during the first year of Covid, and did help in keeping the country safe. And that support propelled them into a full majority in government.
To me Jacinda Ardern is a person how sometimes excelled – the CHCH massacre was a fine showing of them, and sometimes did /say things that did not work for them. The mandates come to mind, the lawn protests come to mind, and in the end Self ID – any one who identifies as a man or a women is it, sex no longer being applicable to identify someone or to even just assume some ones 'idendity'. No more then i would assume you or anyone else to be either a women or a man unless they state so explicitly.
Personally i have no more use for Jacinda then i have for John Key, they are people that at best create a world that is easier for workers/poor people at worst they make it harder , and every other year they get replaced and workers and the poor will have to live with their legacy what ever that may be, and they will still be looked after well thanks to nice appointments and perks courtesy of the tax payer.
Yes Anne, there are false narratives abounding, the biggest of those.." Labour has caused hardship."
I don't think those bitter people realise how hard people are working to reconnect communities after the storms, how they are trying so hard to mend the patchwork of the contract act's lowest common denominator of any past work, the lowest price.
The past lying about "efficiencies', which turned out to be the lowest bid for the contract, not the most efficient at meeting real needs.
Our Forestry is an example. The cheapest labour transport and a small portion of the tree used. The left over materials? Some one else will wear that, "not their problem." All contracts need environmental frameworks which have been missing in the "austerity efficiency drive"of past governments.
We need to ask ourselves, "What outcomes overall do we want?"
It is not "a dog eat dog race to the bottom." It is community care and co-operation which supports people to find their good life.
So called past efficiencies were built on poor practice, because contracting was aiming to be the cheapest not the best.
To build consensus to work together threatens power plays of the 5%, and Chippy is avoiding the cult of personality, while setting frameworks in place and selecting a competent group of facilitators like Keirin McAnulty.
It is always hard to win a 3rd term, but Chippy and Labour are giving it their best shot, with work done by Parker to show the rich were rich before covid, and are not contributing as much as their poorer cousins to the community pot, but they are happy to skew the playing field with huge donations to National and Act.
Winter has always come Sabine, and remember this government provided a payment to help with that, and will always support encourage and help people in the face of huge problems. As Chippy stated, "we are for skills science and opportunity".
Personally, at 81 I am glad we had the government we did through the problems we have had. I do not see the National or Act group as any improvement, and probably climate denial to read their skimpy policy positions.
The raising of divisive issues to divide us into factions, is more of the same old same old from them.
As someone affected by the summer storms, I have had visits from multiple sources ranging from my insurance company, related groups, tradesmen of all shapes and sizes 😀 and other individuals. I'm surprised there have been no local rumours of a newly minted brothel in their midst but maybe age…….. 🙁
All of them have gone above and beyond to be helpful and, at least in part, I believe the government's overall handling of the crisis has made a big difference. And of course it is just the latest of a series of crisis that have befallen this government and every one of them has been competently handled.
If the past six years had followed a more normal course, many of the problems still facing the country would have been well on the way to recovery which is something the naysayers – that includes sections of the media as well at the opposition parties – never acknowledge of course.
It beggars belief it might happen over again. This time more of NZ could be in the firing line. The outcome depends on a very stubborn high pressure system to the east of NZ which looks like it is going to refuse to move on.
The giant minds of National explain that their being nice to landlords policy allows trickledown to tenants … if and when landlords want to …
rents have increased significantly in the nearly six years since Labour was elected. Median rents were sitting at $450 a week in September 2017. They have now reached a new record high of $600, increasing $60 since Labour's rental reform was introduced in February 2021 when the median weekly rent was $540.
So in 3 years from 2017 to February 2021 rents went up $90 and in the 2 years since another $60 and this is proof that the new rental standards pushed up rent costs. It's basically the same rate of increase in rent as before the change.
And these are the people who want to restore the teaching of maths back to where it was when they were in school?
The average rent was $350 in March 2015 and increased to $450 in 2017. $100 that time. That rate of increase is clearly faster than since Feb 2021.
More fact free policy from National pandering to their donors, party members and their interests, not those of tenants. Nor those who want to buy first homes as their policy is designed to enable more buying up of property by the rentier class.
PS the dollar amounts of increase in recent years are off a higher base and thus a smaller percentage rate of increase per dollar (for those in the mathematically challenged National caucus).
Here's National's policy. "“National has a plan to help combat the cost of living. We will bring discipline to government spending, reduce cost on businesses, fix worker shortages and provide tax relief to hard working Kiwis.”
This is designed to fix what they say are these problems. “The recent release of benefit statistics shows that the cost-of-living crisis is completely out of control with more than $247 million spent in the last three months on hardship payments – the highest in New Zealand’s history.
“Almost 659,000 New Zealanders received a hardship assistance payment in the first quarter of this year – more than a 100 per cent increase compared with five years ago.
“The vast majority of hardship payments were for food, making it abundantly clear Kiwis are struggling to put food on the table.
“Labour has been in power for over five and half years and their economic mismanagement and lack of plan to address the cost-of-living crisis is hurting too many New Zealanders, who are now unable to live without additional financial support."
That, folks, is where National is going to be heading with its rhetoric and policies. All this from a news release emailed from Louise Upston's office today.
People who are struggling to meet essential costs such as rent, heating, and food may be eligible for hardship support from Work and Income.
From 1 November, anyone who meets the increased income thresholds, such as casual or part-time workers, or people who aren't already getting financial support may be eligible for assistance.
For example:
a single person, 18 years or older, working up to 40 hours a week on the minimum wage, and earning up to $800 a week (before tax) may be eligible for assistance.
a sole parent with one child, the weekly income threshold (before tax) will increase to $1,100 a week.
a couple’s income threshold will increase to $1,600 a week.
The National Party is merely identifying that Labour is helping people with the cost of living (the inflation is global by the way) increase via the hardship grant.
The report's authors said their simulated peak height of the largest blast, number five in the sequence, was 85 metres.
"Immediately after the explosion, the transient blast cavity that becomes the tsunami is 6km across, forming a wave 85m high on the north side of HTHH and 65m high to the south.
"The wave runups from the 2022 HTHH explosive event comfortably meet the criteria for a megatsunami and contend for the largest event anywhere in the past 100 years."
Why anyone believes that this failed state has anything of value to offer others on planet Earth trying to find a way to live a life of meaning and compassion amid climate collapse and gross human greed fails my comprehension.
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The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Asia Pacific Report From France to Australia, university pro-Palestine protests in the United States have now spread to several countries with students pitching on-campus camps. And students at Columbia and other US universities remain defiant as campuses have witnessed the biggest protests since the anti-Vietnam war and anti-apartheid eras in ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)New Zealand Government’s Fast Track legislation. Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government ...
Tara Ward talks to presenter Naomi Toilalo about the new TV show that turns food waste into a three course feast. Naomi Toilalo is standing in the warehouse at Good Neighbour Tauranga, helping unpack the two-and-a-half tonnes of rejected food that will arrive at the community support hub that day. ...
Scout is our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Scout’s human, Avril, for her support. Dog name: Scout (named after the little girl in To Kill a Mockingbird – she inherited the independent spirit ...
Megan Alatini takes us through her life in TV, including ‘terrible’ daytime TV, the class of Carol Hirschfeld and her most embarrassing TrueBliss moment. When she responded to a vague newspaper ad asking “do you have what it takes to be a popstar?” 25 years ago, Megan Alatini never guessed ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
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A thousand words.
Almost every major error and meltdown in Dem/left politics, from post-left fash apologism to popularist left-punching cringe, comes from fatally flawed attempts to solve what I call the Upper Left Quadrant problem. Here is the chart, and the fundamental problem: /1
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1651281534702460928.html
(h/t https://twitter.com/daphlawless/status/1651390457761636352 )
Huge fun to play with that and alter it a bit for NZ – it isn't exact but fun none the less!
This chart explains *so much* about modern NZ politics. What it says, simply, is that almost all the actual persuadable voters in the electorate aren't "moderates."
They're cross-pressured extremists and…kinda fashy. They're socially bigoted and economically leftist. Needless to say, this is not great. It's a huge impediment for making progress. But it's also highly inconvenient for the major ideological factions in NZ politics.
Let's start with "No Labels" style centrists. These are corporate folks who push the idea that most persuadable voters are socially liberal but economically conservative. TOP types. This is FLATLY FALSE. As you can see, there is almost NO ONE in that bottom right quadrant. The suburban TOP liberal does exist, of course – but their numbers are actually quite limited and they are far less economically conservative and more socially liberal than usually given credit for. They're not really persuadable and likelier to vote for Chloe than Seymour.
Now let's take the socialist left. It is tempting to look at this chart and say "hey, there's opportunity for left populism here! Let's persuade some of these folks!" I myself made that error in 2016, thinking that left populism could win many of them over. That was…wrong. It was VERY wrong. The Trump presidency proved it. He went full Paul Ryan on economics, & lost none of his supporters over it. Trump-curious Upper Quadrant types didn't shift left. Instead, Bradbury/Trotter types went head over heels to the far-right in hatred of liberals.
Then there are the Labour party populists like Chippy and McNaulty. They look at the Upper Left Quadrant and think "hey if we just toned down the social liberalism then these folks would vote for a milquetoast liberal party." Yeah….no. That doesn't work, either. An upper-quadrant voter who likes superannuation but hates LGBTQ people isn't going to vote Labour over National because you sidearmed trans people a little bit. A racist who wants no government spending for Maori only isn't going to vote Labour if you demure on diversity initiatives. Whether economic or social leftism overreaches sometimes is debatable on its own merits as public policy when it comes to, say, housing policy or co-governance. But it's worthless as an *electoral* strategy for reaching the Upper Left Quadrant voter. And, of course, the NZ political right is eating itself alive over this problem. It turns out no one actually believes in Rogernomics / Luxon conservatism. Economic conservatism was always a front for hurting the marginalised (see National's housing announcements). No one wants what David Seymour is selling, and it shows.
The only real way to solve the Upper Left Quadrant Problem is by gradually sorting it out of the electorate, and being economically left-populist in the mold of younger voters. Younger voters are overwhelmingly bottom left quadrant (econ & soc left). Let the fash sort with the fash into the upper right. Let liberals and the left sort with each other.
Leftists: stop trying to placate the fash with anti-globalism. Centrists: stop trying to be "anti-woke" or appeal to non-existent bottom-right quadrant voters. The country is going to get a lot more polarized before things get better, and things will only get better when the Jacinda/Chloe-aligned under-45s who vote Labour/Greens +20 points are a bigger and bigger share of the electorate. We're not getting any more conservative with age.
Interesting first thoughts – thanks.
I was also struck by how thin the bottom right quadrant is. We are assailed by corporate types claiming to be socially liberal but economically conservative. It's maybe not actually much of a thing, which suggests it's more of a tactical pretense than a genuinely felt position.
The crowded and conflicted upper left quadrant is playing out in front of our eyes with the trans rights slanging match. Your seem to imply that for people in this conflicted quadrant, one side of the conflict will be more determinative of their actual voting than the other. And that not understanding this will lead to naive tactics by politicians. That's a very interesting idea.
I tend to agree that the way forward is for these two conflicted quadrants to be cleaned out by generational change. And these quadrants are not in fact coherent places to occupy. Fundamentally, this is because there are not separate 'social' and 'economic' dimensions. The 'economic' is entirely a social creation – and disembedding the economic from the social and pretending it has immutable 'laws' like some sort of science, is a source of many problems. It also means that these social/economic matrix analyses are ultimately built on a false assumption and we probably need a better tool.
An unfortunately worded piece of rhetoric copy-pasted from American corporate democrats. According to the author, the working class is "fashy", "socially bigoted", "an impediment to progress", "Trump-curious", "in hatred of liberals", "racist" blah blah blah.
Evidently such reprobates are an "Upper Left Quadrant Problem" to be "gradually sort[ed] out of the electorate".
Pure divisive bullshit. This is a massive constituency that would have carried Bernie or Corbyn to power on a wave of people power, but was stuffed by their own parties, and awful slanders in the MSM, similar to the foregoing comment. Apparently the working class is not allowed to participate in democracy.
I was just wondering how those here feeling about Hipkin's seeming to almost be trying to out-National National at the moment.
I get the thing about wanting to win the election, and competing for the middle ground etc. But Hipkins was part of the government that introduced a lot of the things he has since dumped. And, I wonder, if he is focussed so much on the pragmatism of winning that he is in danger of losing his ideological soul.
Nah tsmithfield. He's centre of the political road. Always has been. Pragmatism is his middle name. He won't veer left or right from his current position because that is pretty much his ideological standpoint.
The one thing he has got in spades is a commonsense, steady as she goes outlook which is more than the right-leaning leadership has demonstrated at this point in time.
That's supposed to make us feel better Anne? Labour- betraying NZ since 1984.
You can feel any way you like. Nobody cares. 🙄 Fact is fact whether you like it or not.
Hipkins having an ideological soul!
Brilliant.
His ideology is re-election.
Mr Pak 'n' Save, steak and cheese, like Key, has principles. If you don't like them he has some others.
If you'd asked me 5-6 years ago when Corbynism was riding high, AOC was in full flight and Trump had trashed the arch centrist blast from the past Hillary Clinton I would have said centrism was dead and buried.
However since then, we've witnessed two things – first, the traditional political right self-radicalising in and out of office to ever more extremist culture war positions, from Fidesz in Hungary, the Tories (Suella Bravermann anyone?) in the UK, the MAGA/QANON Trump cult in the GOP, the increasingly extremist Morrison/Dutton in government in Aussie to the radicalisation of National's post 2020 rump caucus with a gowing number of vanguardist evangelical culture warriors using prosperity doctrine as a template to justify very unpopular economic policies.
Secondly multi-global crisises like COVID and various natural disasters have placed competent government back in the centre of voter concern.
The self-radicalisation of the traditional right and the need for good crisis management has given a new lease of life to centrism's main pitch – competent technocratric managerialism and an appeal to neoliberal incrementalism.
As long as the right remains distracted by culture wars and unserious about governing then centrism will hang on.
Just how viable it is in the long term for a healthy democracy to have as your sole realistic electoral options a choice between a bunch of unelectable increasingly far right culture warriors and the least worst centrist government that can be conjured up I'll leave to the reader to speculate.
Ah well, pretty much what I said @2.1 but with the I's dotted and T's crossed in a manner few can achieve. Sanctuary is one of them. We have others too. 😉
I don't think Chippy has dumped anything. I think he has put things aside until after election when all these non dumped things will be back on the full burner. He never voiced any concern about unpopular policy options during the Jacinda Ardern days.
Maybe rename or re-brand a few of the unpopular policies (see 3 / 5 / 10 waters or what evs it is called now)if you like but still the same stuff that upset people to the point where Jacinda felt they needed to leave in order to not tank Labour altogether on election day. And yes, i know their tank was empty.
Not sure if he has achieved that. Winter is coming, it is going to be a hard winter for many – and i mean those that receive no support from government, and Labour has no policies articulated for that discontent that will be coming in with the cold.
National, will do what National always does, so i have no expectations there.
That scenario might fit your embittered political outlook Sabine but it happens to be wrong. Jacinda Ardern left because SHE had physically and mentally tanked after five of the most grueling years any NZ prime minister has ever had to face. The fact she lasted as long as she did is a testament to her courage and determination in the face of multiple crisis and a level of manufactured vitriol never seen in this country before.
I am being realistic. The polls had Jacinda in the lowest numbers possible, and that was as much a part in the decision making then Jacinda understanding that they had not enough left in the tank to fight against that. Did they receive bad press, yes and sometimes it was warranted and other times it was not, did they take decisions that in the end back fired, yes, that too, but the day they left and resigned their polls were in no where land, or at least not good enough to assure a guaranteed win. For the record, i was equally unimpressed with John Key resigning for very much the same reason. I believe that if someone has the slightest doubts that they can not do the job, they should not apply for it.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/131023687/poll-taken-before-pms-resignation-saw-arderns-favourability-rate-slide-into-negative-territory
Unless of course you think that Stuff is embittered.
As for Jacinda being a she/her – no thank you, that won't fly anymore. Unless they have claimed that they are a women with she/her pronouns i am staying on the safe side and use they/them and not assume their gender identity. Sex no longer is an arbiter of anything.
After all we currently have a PM who can not define what a women is unless they have a pre-formulated answer to the questions ‘ what is a women’ or ‘can you define women’.
So that is not helping in identifying who is a women.
And that includes the idiocy of proclaiming to have half of cabinet being 'women' when they can't identify or define what a women is. The 50% could be made up of males who identify as women. IT is a meaningless statement, not worth the paper it is printed on.
Jacindas years in government were no more grueling then the years of the CHCH earthquakes, world war 1 and two, and the Spanish influence to name a few hard years for people who ran the country. In fact, one could argue that they had it alright, as NZ as a whole was happy to help during the first year of Covid, and did help in keeping the country safe. And that support propelled them into a full majority in government.
To me Jacinda Ardern is a person how sometimes excelled – the CHCH massacre was a fine showing of them, and sometimes did /say things that did not work for them. The mandates come to mind, the lawn protests come to mind, and in the end Self ID – any one who identifies as a man or a women is it, sex no longer being applicable to identify someone or to even just assume some ones 'idendity'. No more then i would assume you or anyone else to be either a women or a man unless they state so explicitly.
Personally i have no more use for Jacinda then i have for John Key, they are people that at best create a world that is easier for workers/poor people at worst they make it harder , and every other year they get replaced and workers and the poor will have to live with their legacy what ever that may be, and they will still be looked after well thanks to nice appointments and perks courtesy of the tax payer.
Yes Anne, there are false narratives abounding, the biggest of those.." Labour has caused hardship."
I don't think those bitter people realise how hard people are working to reconnect communities after the storms, how they are trying so hard to mend the patchwork of the contract act's lowest common denominator of any past work, the lowest price.
The past lying about "efficiencies', which turned out to be the lowest bid for the contract, not the most efficient at meeting real needs.
Our Forestry is an example. The cheapest labour transport and a small portion of the tree used. The left over materials? Some one else will wear that, "not their problem." All contracts need environmental frameworks which have been missing in the "austerity efficiency drive"of past governments.
We need to ask ourselves, "What outcomes overall do we want?"
It is not "a dog eat dog race to the bottom." It is community care and co-operation which supports people to find their good life.
So called past efficiencies were built on poor practice, because contracting was aiming to be the cheapest not the best.
To build consensus to work together threatens power plays of the 5%, and Chippy is avoiding the cult of personality, while setting frameworks in place and selecting a competent group of facilitators like Keirin McAnulty.
It is always hard to win a 3rd term, but Chippy and Labour are giving it their best shot, with work done by Parker to show the rich were rich before covid, and are not contributing as much as their poorer cousins to the community pot, but they are happy to skew the playing field with huge donations to National and Act.
Winter has always come Sabine, and remember this government provided a payment to help with that, and will always support encourage and help people in the face of huge problems. As Chippy stated, "we are for skills science and opportunity".
Personally, at 81 I am glad we had the government we did through the problems we have had. I do not see the National or Act group as any improvement, and probably climate denial to read their skimpy policy positions.
The raising of divisive issues to divide us into factions, is more of the same old same old from them.
As someone affected by the summer storms, I have had visits from multiple sources ranging from my insurance company, related groups, tradesmen of all shapes and sizes 😀 and other individuals. I'm surprised there have been no local rumours of a newly minted brothel in their midst but maybe age…….. 🙁
All of them have gone above and beyond to be helpful and, at least in part, I believe the government's overall handling of the crisis has made a big difference. And of course it is just the latest of a series of crisis that have befallen this government and every one of them has been competently handled.
If the past six years had followed a more normal course, many of the problems still facing the country would have been well on the way to recovery which is something the naysayers – that includes sections of the media as well at the opposition parties – never acknowledge of course.
I hope it all holds good in this coming piece of weather Anne.
It beggars belief it might happen over again. This time more of NZ could be in the firing line. The outcome depends on a very stubborn high pressure system to the east of NZ which looks like it is going to refuse to move on.
The giant minds of National explain that their being nice to landlords policy allows trickledown to tenants … if and when landlords want to …
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/04/michael-wood-lashes-out-at-national-s-cold-hearted-promise-to-allow-evictions-without-reason-says-it-won-t-fix-lack-of-housing.html
So in 3 years from 2017 to February 2021 rents went up $90 and in the 2 years since another $60 and this is proof that the new rental standards pushed up rent costs. It's basically the same rate of increase in rent as before the change.
And these are the people who want to restore the teaching of maths back to where it was when they were in school?
The average rent was $350 in March 2015 and increased to $450 in 2017. $100 that time. That rate of increase is clearly faster than since Feb 2021.
https://ecoprofile.infometrics.co.nz/wellington%20region/StandardOfLiving/Rent
More fact free policy from National pandering to their donors, party members and their interests, not those of tenants. Nor those who want to buy first homes as their policy is designed to enable more buying up of property by the rentier class.
PS the dollar amounts of increase in recent years are off a higher base and thus a smaller percentage rate of increase per dollar (for those in the mathematically challenged National caucus).
Here's National's policy. "“National has a plan to help combat the cost of living. We will bring discipline to government spending, reduce cost on businesses, fix worker shortages and provide tax relief to hard working Kiwis.”
This is designed to fix what they say are these problems. “The recent release of benefit statistics shows that the cost-of-living crisis is completely out of control with more than $247 million spent in the last three months on hardship payments – the highest in New Zealand’s history.
“Almost 659,000 New Zealanders received a hardship assistance payment in the first quarter of this year – more than a 100 per cent increase compared with five years ago.
“The vast majority of hardship payments were for food, making it abundantly clear Kiwis are struggling to put food on the table.
“Labour has been in power for over five and half years and their economic mismanagement and lack of plan to address the cost-of-living crisis is hurting too many New Zealanders, who are now unable to live without additional financial support."
That, folks, is where National is going to be heading with its rhetoric and policies. All this from a news release emailed from Louise Upston's office today.
More New Zealanders to get hardship support
22 October 2021.
People who are struggling to meet essential costs such as rent, heating, and food may be eligible for hardship support from Work and Income.
From 1 November, anyone who meets the increased income thresholds, such as casual or part-time workers, or people who aren't already getting financial support may be eligible for assistance.
For example:
https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/about-work-and-income/news/2021/more-new-zealanders-to-get-hardship-support.html
The National Party is merely identifying that Labour is helping people with the cost of living (the inflation is global by the way) increase via the hardship grant.
They're right though, the problem is they ain't gonna fix it ,
The animated simulation is quite something.
The report's authors said their simulated peak height of the largest blast, number five in the sequence, was 85 metres.
"Immediately after the explosion, the transient blast cavity that becomes the tsunami is 6km across, forming a wave 85m high on the north side of HTHH and 65m high to the south.
"The wave runups from the 2022 HTHH explosive event comfortably meet the criteria for a megatsunami and contend for the largest event anywhere in the past 100 years."
Watch a simulation of the eruption.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/488758/scale-of-2022-tonga-eruption-leads-to-rethink-on-underwater-volcanoes
Can we now agree the United States of America is fucked?
Man shoots neighbour dead for using leqaf blower in own yard
Why anyone believes that this failed state has anything of value to offer others on planet Earth trying to find a way to live a life of meaning and compassion amid climate collapse and gross human greed fails my comprehension.
The USA is the place to be, a six year old black child knocked on the neighbors door to get permission to recover his ball from the back lawn and got blown away. Molly the Monk. Hence I am not that keen on relaxing the Gun Laws here in NZ.
The brainwashing of my dad
A US youtube doco that explores how outrage tv and outrage talkback rot social connections and turn mild people into angry, fearful bigots. Don’t think it doesn’t happen here.