Aotearoa the way you want it?

Written By: - Date published: 11:06 am, November 26th, 2023 - 47 comments
Categories: act, climate change, education, national, nz first, poverty - Tags:

The Government is being formed and the coalition agreements are now out for all to see.

To be frank I am not only shocked but also amazed.  It feels like the policies were formulated by members of a Workingman’s club in the 1970s and negotiated over a few beers.

How else can you explain military training for young offenders, more reading and writing as if Teachers do not do this as is, less Te Reo and winding back smoking restrictions.

That last one is really hard to understand unless it is a revenue raising exercise.  The changes mean that National will gain an extra $ 1 billion to help fill in the $2 billion gap caused by the cancellation of the foreign buyer surcharge.  But who would have thought that the Government would plug for more lung cancer as a substitute for selling expensive houses to rich people overseas?

Making English an official language is to engage in the sort of mind fuck culture wars that blight our democracy and stop us talking about the really important issues like saving the planet from devastation caused by climate change.  And talking about climate change is not something the parties appear to have spent much time doing.  The word “climate” does not appear in the National Act agreement.  It appears once in the National NZ First agreement in this policy:

Ensure that climate change policies are aligned and do not undermine national energy security.

I can hear the offshore drilling equipment getting revved up as I type this.

A lot of the policies are simple reversals of the last Government’s reforms with no thought about what to do about the issues the reforms were addressing.  The word “repeal” appears 13 times in the two agreements and “reverse” four times.  By comparison the word “poverty” is missing.  This says much about the new Government’s priorities.

I am still perplexed at how this happened although Labour did not help itself.

It is not solely a local problem.  Throughout the world recently there has been a swing against incumbents but also a swing to the right.  For instance in Holland where for the first time the extreme right became the largest party in the recent election.

From the Guardian:

Until this week, no Dutch party associated with the far right had ever won more than 20% of the vote in a national election. In Europe’s most fragmented political landscape, it is an achievement for any party to cross that threshold. Yet Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party (PVV) did it with ease in Wednesday’s snap poll, which was precipitated by the resignation of the outgoing prime minister, Mark Rutte, in the summer. This was a victory that threatens to take the normalisation of nativist populist politics in Europe to a dangerous new level.

Campaigning on a nakedly Islamophobic manifesto, which called for bans on mosques and the Qur’an, Mr Wilders won a quarter of the vote. His party has won 37 seats in the 150-seat house of representatives, 12 more than its closest rival and double its tally in the last election. The PVV’s other policies include rejecting all asylum claims, drastically reducing overall levels of immigration, rolling back climate legislation and holding a referendum on leaving the European Union. The party is also opposed to sending more arms to Ukraine. A veteran provocateur on the European stage, Mr Wilders is on the right of the radical right; the dial of Dutch politics has just shifted radically in his favour.

And in Argentina a Mick Jagger impersonating Trump wanna be TV celebrity has been elected President.  From the Guardian:

Javier Milei, a volatile far-right libertarian who has vowed to “exterminate” inflation and take a chainsaw to the state, has been elected president of Argentina, catapulting South America’s second largest economy into an unpredictable and potentially turbulent future.

With more than 99% of votes counted, the Mick Jagger impersonating TV celebrity-turned politician, who is often compared to Donald Trump, had secured 55.69% of the vote compared with 44.3% for his rival, the centre-left finance minister Sergio Massa.

“Today the reconstruction of Argentina begins. Today is a historic night for Argentina,” Milei told jubilant supporters at his campaign headquarters in Buenos Aires, calling his victory a “miracle”.

The issue for the left is to work out how to change the narrative.  How do we get people talking about the real issues and avoiding the counter culture battles thrown up by well funded agents of evil?

In the meantime buckle down.  This is going to be a hell of a ride where the Government picks at scabs to avoid attention on its failure to address the issues that are really important.

47 comments on “Aotearoa the way you want it? ”

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  1. Kat 1
    26 November 2023 at 11:20 am

    "Labour did not help itself…." I would have to agree as it was obvious that Labour took the electorates intelligence levels as being way too high. Labour failed to take that section of the electorate that changes govts with them.

    If Labour wants to swing on the big stage and dance with the fickle swing voters then it needs to set the beat, learn the moves and wipe the floor.

    Trust a working group is on it…..

    • Anne 1.1
      26 November 2023 at 11:53 am

      " … Labour took the electorates intelligence levels as being way too high."

      They always have Kat as I'm sure you know. The only Labour leader who truly understood this was Helen Clark. She and her team arranged for a "pledge card" with five simple promises and had them sent to every voter in the country. Yes, the Oppo. kicked up a song and dance about it and forced an inquiry but who cared about that because it had already worked.

      • Kat 1.1.1
        26 November 2023 at 12:48 pm

        I see a silver lining in the current political situation.

        With the emergence of TPM as a genuine political force and the solid Green vote, Labour now has an opportunity to reset and focus on core Labour policies such as housing, affordable food, education, health, fostering a society that believes in a fair go for all with investment in enterprise that creates real jobs and real incomes.

        Another working group……so be it…

        • Anne 1.1.1.1
          26 November 2023 at 1:25 pm

          The first thing they have to do is to create a better diversity of MPs than currently exist. Labour has done a great job of introducing ethnic diversity into the mix and I congratulate them. But where they have fallen down imo is relying too much on middle class professionals with a degree or two up their sleeves. Yes, we need the university graduated professionals, but there are also many talented people who choose to make their mark through other means of endaeavour.

          As an example I have a nephew who is intelligent and astute. He would have romped through university had he chosen that path. But he is an outdoors type who chose the trades. He's a trained plumber, roofer, builder/carpenter whose work is highly regarded. He now supervises some of Auckland's biggest constrictions sites – not all at the same time.

          He has no political ambitions, but there are plenty of both sexes like him who would make excellent MPs. Labour needs to get out there and find them.

          • Kat 1.1.1.1.1
            26 November 2023 at 1:59 pm

            "Labour needs to get out there and find them…………"

            Yep, a better mix of skilled, academics and professionals is required. The trouble is it appears most skilled people are just not interested in becoming an MP.

            The political system and the way it operates, particularly with Labour, seems to appeal mainly to middle class professionals. Over on the other side the attraction is with ex corporate executives, the bored landed gentry with nothing better to do and mindless seat warmers chosen to boost a parties numbers.

    • Thinker 1.2
      26 November 2023 at 8:37 pm

      Yes. If the term "workingmans' club" is used perjoratively by the left as a criticism of the right, then which party truly represents the working man (or woman)?

      And where do we find those people, such that, whatever an election outcome, we are not solely represented by blue-stockings (and blue socks…), academics and people generally one-step removed from the daily grind of left-wing voters?

      Not to say there aren’t such people as MPs, but we need to find more people who’ve been through the University of Hartt-Knox.

      • Kat 1.2.1
        26 November 2023 at 10:01 pm

        "Not to say there aren’t such people as MPs, but we need to find more people who’ve been through the University of Hartt-Knox……"

        Those from the school of hard knocks don't usually want to be in politics these days………especially the ones with honours degrees…..

  2. Ad 2
    26 November 2023 at 11:27 am

    They are going to find health, crime, and hysing at least as hard as Labour did.

    And they are not proposing any new structure or agency to focus the work.

    I object to our expectations being set so low.

    • Patricia Bremner 2.1
      26 November 2023 at 12:08 pm

      The right wing media will distract and lie by omission and assist these backward boneheads. "Policies written ???" Hatchet job promises more like. Destructive vindictive scene setting for petty point scoring. Some excellent jornalists have already been threatened because they have exposed the cruel intent.

      There will be money for undoing progressive policies, then further money shifted and allow dangerous and costly habits which will be taxed. ("Freedom" says you have freedom of choice.. choose wrongly and we will tax you, give you no help to change, and give that money to Landlords et al.) Two billion from benefits over four years and a billion from the smoke free plans.

      The fabric of society and relations with Maori will be divided and tested to create active dissent, using the Waitangi Tribunal as a catalyst. Seizures of property will begin again. Property laws will be changed. Laws governing workers will again become punitive while billionaires are lorded.

      Talk will again be "individual effort" not "community strength". All studies appear to matter not a jot.

      We have change upon us that is so destructive it is scary. How do we begin to fight this?

      At 82 I am in despair. The future was difficult before, but now it appears bleak.

      • roblogic 2.1.1
        27 November 2023 at 3:15 pm

        Existential threats like war, natural disasters, mass protest movements have a way of focussing the minds of the political class. The good thing about NZ democracy is that we can change direction very quickly if we need to.

  3. Darien Fenton 3
    26 November 2023 at 11:41 am

    Why is my comment refusing to load because it is spam?

    [No idea and it is not in the back engine. Too many links? – MS]

  4. tc 4
    26 November 2023 at 1:23 pm

    I see the tobacco move as possibly some donors influence more than anything else IMO.

    Any revenue is more than offest by eventual health impacts.

    Buckle up folks if this is up front FU moves wonder what type of shit they'll try and slip through on the quiet.

  5. SPC 5
    26 November 2023 at 1:29 pm

    To be frank I am not only shocked but also amazed. It feels like the policies were formulated by members of a Workingman’s club in the 1970s and negotiated over a few beers.

    How else can you explain military training for young offenders, more reading and writing as if Teachers do not do this as is, less Te Reo and winding back smoking restrictions.

    No. They would have had no problem with Fair Pay Industry Awards. And would have expected an estate tax on the landlord class at the very least. And policies to assist home ownership.

    It's politics – catering to the attitudes of an aging social conservative provincial National Party demographic – akin to the little England Brexit vote.

  6. Robin The Goodfellow 6
    26 November 2023 at 4:23 pm

    The pendulum always swings back the other way

  7. DS 7
    26 November 2023 at 4:37 pm

    I despise the incoming government as much as anyone… but can we please criticise them without the classist nonsense about Workingmen's Clubs? Not least because, you know, the sort of employment law or tax policy envisaged by a 1970s Workingmen's Club would be a long, long way to the Left of anything proposed by anyone in the 2020s.

    • joe90 7.1
      26 November 2023 at 8:40 pm

      There was nothing particularly left about my father's 1970s provincial Workingmen's Clubs. They were the sexist, racist, tory light refuge of small business owners and the self employed, that revolved around networking, beer, snooker, and the looming ignominy of admitting lady members.

  8. pat 8
    26 November 2023 at 4:51 pm

    "The issue for the left is to work out how to change the narrative. How do we get people talking about the real issues and avoiding the counter culture battles thrown up by well funded agents of evil?"

    And you wonder why?

    The issue for the 'left' is how to develop policies that address the concerns of the majority…not how you can 'educate' people in 'goodthink'

    Two ears , one mouth.

  9. Darien Fenton 9
    27 November 2023 at 7:11 am

    Well said Micky. The more I look at the coalition agreements, the more gobsmacked I am. I do get a bit tired of people going on about what Labour coulda shoulda done. I had a Green voter on Twitter yesterday telling me it is Labour's fault we have this government and calling me "old Labour" whatever the hell that means. We have to look at ourselves, yes of course we do, but we also have to come together and fight like hell, because the next three years will have hell rained down upon us. I fear for our country. I really do.

    • James Simpson 9.1
      27 November 2023 at 8:45 am

      I tend to agree with that sentiment that this government is simply an anti Labour government.

      National don't stand for any great cause. They didn't win off the back of any core policy. Nobody really knows what they want to do.

      They are there because for whatever reason people turned their backs on Labour. We need to work out what the reason for that was, when the alterntive was offering noting.

      • Craig H 9.1.1
        27 November 2023 at 8:55 pm

        National's principal aim in life at foundation was power for the sake of keeping Labour out of power. Nothing much has changed since then.

    • theotherpat 9.2
      27 November 2023 at 7:33 pm

      well it is Labours fault….too many fuckwits and to many…. ive been a labour voter all my life but not this time the greens got my vote……the thought of them being in power for another three years turned my stomach…..not just me did this too hence their lousy polling…..they need to get back to basics fast…..too many fuck ups to be called competent.

  10. Ghostwhowalks 10
    27 November 2023 at 8:14 am

    "I can hear the offshore drilling equipment getting revved up as I type this"

    While the ban on issuing new exploration licenses was a sensible policy, the explorers had left before 2018 or so when it was indroduced.

    NZ is a high risk -low reward drilling area in its surrounding ocean shelfs. The oil companies did it mostly to reduce their peak profits in boom times, and after the oil price crash of 2014 hightailed it out of NZ.

    MBIE has interactive maps of all the exploration wells drilled in and around NZ. 99.9% are dry or not economic

    • Bearded Git 10.1
      27 November 2023 at 8:57 am

      So National has dumped a Climate Change policy for no reason. Brilliant.

      They are dinosaurs, though that insults the dinosaurs.

      • Barfly 10.1.1
        27 November 2023 at 11:26 am

        Hmm how about a referendum to go with the 2026 election

        "Introduce a Wealth Tax to fund free dental care for all *"

        * = consultation, fillings and extractions

        Make it clear of course that this is Labour Party policy. Hell I imagine the Greens and TPM would sign up for that to.

  11. Tiger Mountain 11
    27 November 2023 at 8:39 am

    It is significant that the words Climate and Poverty are omitted or minimised in the documents. In 1991 the Natzo’s union busting Employment Contracts Act sidelined the word–“union” in favour of “bargaining agent”. A shift from collectivism to individualism. The coalition agreements signal that the boot is going to be put into the bottom 50%. Aotearoa NZ more than ever is now a “Tale of Two Cities”.

    “Labour could have done more…”. Actually Labour did too much in one respect with Chris Hipkin’s infamous Cap’n’s calls on wealth tax and CGT. When David Parker’s portfolio hit the Cabinet table I had an instant premonition that the election was over. If Robbo and David’s views were not acceptable to Fraser House and the PM then what the?

    When NZ Labour were clearly not going to support taxing the wealthy as the commissioned IRD Report showed was necessary, the polling immediately dropped and never recovered. Cause or coincidence?

    Sure there are complex reasons why voter turnout was down–alienation, COVID revenge syndrome, transience and degraded NZ Post, and voters in the neo liberal era in many countries have long voted for “feels” ahead of their own material best interests.

    In the election aftermath I have termed the NActFirst leaders clowns, which they certainly are in their personas, but in reality they will be the three vandals, laying waste to Labour and Greens many incremental reforms, workers and tenants rights. The new gens will by sheer numbers likely make a comeback in 2026, but what a horrific scene will have to be dealt with by then.

    • Bearded Git 11.1
      27 November 2023 at 8:59 am

      Agree Tiger. It is Hipkins unceremonious and unilateral dumping of Parker's WT that means he has to go, probably in 12 months.

    • Rolling-on-Gravel 11.2
      27 November 2023 at 12:40 pm

      /quote “Labour could have done more…”. Actually Labour did too much in one respect with Chris Hipkin’s infamous Cap’n’s calls on wealth tax and CGT. When David Parker’s portfolio hit the Cabinet table I had an instant premonition that the election was over. If Robbo and David’s views were not acceptable to Fraser House and the PM then what the? /quote

      Yeah my heart sank when he said that. Labour didn't get my potential vote after that.

      I wouldn't be surprised if that was part of the reasons for South Auckland vote collapse…

  12. newsense 12
    27 November 2023 at 9:27 am

    Bernard Hickey again in my inbox this morning:

    ’How many smokers will die to fund tax cuts?’

    That’s some clear messaging.

    The Standard discussion doesn’t seem to have this clarity about what’s going on.

  13. roblogic 13
    27 November 2023 at 2:56 pm

    This is going to be a hell of a ride where the Government picks at scabs to avoid attention on its failure to address the issues that are really important.

    So pretty much what L/G did but picking at different scabs.