Can’t Simon Bridges prove a double negative

Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, October 30th, 2019 - 33 comments
Categories: crime, law, law and "order", national, same old national, Simon Bridges, Social issues, uncategorized - Tags:

It has been reported that the opposition leader’s office has 31 people working in social media and only four working on policy development.  And boy does it show.

Today National is releasing its social services policy discussion document and I am sure there will be something for everyone.  Some needs assessing here and some retraining there all wrapped around a big club that it is going to use to beat poor people with mercilessly.  For laughs.  And political advantage.

The number one target will be gang members.  Simon has already tweeted that “National will block gang members from the dole if they can’t prove they don’t have illegal income or assets. I’ve seen the misery gangs peddle. As PM I’ll make sure gangs can’t exploit taxpayers.”  I have not posted the tweet because the churn and attention are obviously what National is looking for.

At a political level the plan is cunning.  A discussion between a leftie and a right winger about the policy will go something like this:

Leftie:  But how will it work?  How can anyone prove they don’t have something, or not prove that they do have something?

Rightie: Hur hur crush them.

Leftie: But what about their children? And if they don’t have a legitimate income won’t this mean they will do more crime?

Rightie: hate, hate, hate, hate …

Simon Bridges was interviewed by Corin Dann this morning on the issue on Radio New Zealand.

He said that it was not the intention of the policy to get to the family of the gang member.  Corin Dann said there were 6,000 to 7,000 children who would be potentially affected.  Bridges could not explain how they won’t be affected even though asked repeatedly.   I guess that these kids as well as being next generation gang members will just be collateral damage.

The most perplexing aspect of the proposal is why only gang members.

For instance there is a certain major political party that has form for avoiding the law concerning donations.  The most recent example was when a $100,000 donation was partitioned into smaller non disclosable donations. The matter is being investigated by the authorities and for some strange reason the investigation is still ongoing, seven months after it was announced.  Maybe National should be forced to show that its donations income is legitimate.  Merely as a precaution.

And there is another group responsible for most white collar crime that using National’s logic should also have to justify their accumulated wealth.  This is the most feared gang on the planet, the men in suits gang.  

The full policy is to be released this afternoon.

There is one aspect that is troubling to me.  National is managing to grab and dominate the media cycle with this trash talking.  Events in Australia, America and the UK suggest that this sort of campaigning, destructive as it is, may be effective.

33 comments on “Can’t Simon Bridges prove a double negative ”

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  1. ianmac 1
    30 October 2019 at 9:03 am

    National is managing to grab and dominate the media cycle with this trash talking.

    Me too. I cannot remember any Opposition getting the air time that this lot have, and with so little scrutiny. Then news reports sum up the content of the "policy" but without the counter arguments. Free advertising?

  2. michelle 2
    30 October 2019 at 9:14 am

    Bloody hypocrites what about all the chinese black market money, and the tax haven that wasn't a tax haven and then we have the tax dodgers and the chinese jack yan akka a whole lot of other alias names refusing to pay back 12 millions and saying we have no jurisdiction in china.

  3. Tony Veitch (not etc.) 3
    30 October 2019 at 9:29 am

    'Jeez Wayne,' after listening to the RNZ interview linked above, "the reality is," Soimun Brudges has got a fucken clue!

    Benefit fraud is small compared to "the ill-gotten gains" of white collar crime, but 'lawan'order' don't you know!

    Next year's election is already shaping up as a fact-free campaign! God help us all!

    • Chris 3.1
      30 October 2019 at 9:36 am

      Yes, he's got a clue, which is too few. He needs more than a clue – he needs a few clues, and even though he does have few clues, it’s still too few.

    • Tony Veitch (not etc.) 3.2
      30 October 2019 at 10:15 am

      edit – should have read 'hasn't got a fucken clue!' Whoops.

      Does this mistake put me in the same category as Soimun, unable to speak or write coherently?

      Do I have as few clues as Soimun, eh Chris?

      • Chris 3.2.1
        30 October 2019 at 1:07 pm

        No, not at all. Just being silly with the difference between "few clues" and "a few clues". A bit like "not too bad".

  4. greywarshark 4
    30 October 2019 at 9:31 am

    I thought I heard Simon refer to a gang member with 9 years connection being quizzed about ill-gotten gains and wondered if he was thinking of John Key? I'm a bit unsure about this.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018719881/national-wants-tougher-tests-for-gang-members-on-benefits

  5. Sanctuary 5
    30 October 2019 at 9:48 am

    Listening to Bridges you can tell he has flipped the purpose of policy on it's head. Once, you used punchlines and pithy slogans to sell a coherent policy. Bridges now uses crudely sketched out policy as a platform for repetitive social media dogwhistles fed to him by Topham Guerin.

    • Anne 5.1
      30 October 2019 at 10:29 am

      Labour and the Greens have to radically change their own election year strategy to meet the challenge of fact-free sound-bites and dog-whistles appealing to the lowest common denominator. We've seen the results in both America and Britain and it is truly frightening.

      If Labour imagine that NZers are too smart to fall for this type of gutter politics then they are heading for sure defeat at next year's General Election. It's an old cliche I know, but you have to fight fire with fire… there's no other way.

      … most recent example was when a $100,000 donation was partitioned into smaller non disclosable donations. The matter is being investigated by the authorities and for some strange reason the investigation is still ongoing, seven months after it was announced.

      I think you will find it will be released on the evening of the 23rd or 24th December.

      • Sanctuary 5.1.1
        30 October 2019 at 10:47 am

        Yes. Labour needs Facebook ads that show Bridges in China with Guo Shengkun saying "National admits taking money from China's spies"

        and

        “National wants to give terrorists free use of Facebook live”

        That sort of thing.

        And also make sure they beef up regulatory bodies so they can swiftly strike out National party social media ads – and make the honesty and fitness to govern of National an election issue.

        • tc 5.1.1.1
          30 October 2019 at 2:35 pm

          Agreed however this is where labour are taken to the slaughterhouse in the past as they simply refuse to do what's necessary to counter the BS.

          Goff could've given Key a much closer race in 2011 if he dished the dirt back and in 2014 we all know how ineffective they were when DC got slimed by DP tactics.

          • Anne 5.1.1.1.1
            30 October 2019 at 3:31 pm

            In the past Labour has adopted the attitude of… sticking disdainful noses in the air and refusing to sink to the same level as the Nats and then wondering why they have ended up in Opposition. Pointing out to them (as I did on several occasions) that nobody is saying they have to sink to the same level usually provoked further disdainful sniffs and off they went back into Opposition. 🙄

        • Nic the NZer 5.1.1.2
          31 October 2019 at 1:11 pm

          Completely disagree. The problem with the left leaning political factions in the UK and US is they are relying on the 'better than the alternative' narrative. They will only be able to broaden the interest in politics when they start advancing their own broad positive initiatives however.

          For example UK Labour is signalling how terrible the Conservatives will be on the post brexit worker protections, but they just gave up their biggest leverage over that outcome as they could have pushed brexit through on the basis of the replacement for EU labour laws being equivalent to (or maybe even stronger than) the EU ones.

          More pointing to the other sides problems is not really helping.

        • peterlepaysan 5.1.1.3
          1 November 2019 at 10:59 pm

          How Chinese you sound.

      • greywarshark 5.1.2
        30 October 2019 at 11:37 am

        Perhaps this can be drawn attention to by deciding on certain enquiries which may have a negative effect on National, and allocate a number of months or weeks within which a decision could be expected. Then start a countdown for each investigation, each day without a final and responsible report noted. A good idea would be to have a permanent column for Counting Down and have them listed under there with each one having a link that backgrounds the dire doings being investigated. (Countdown is a brand name so confusing to use that as a heading).

        That would keep them in public scrutiny, and also underline the egregious length of time to investigate. Then if reports are issued just on Christmas, or when the All Blacks play next, or the next earthquake happens, the findings and the fault will have been well aired, and not just disappeared into thin air.

  6. Naki man 6
    30 October 2019 at 11:53 am

    There is nothing new here, the police already sell assets of gang members (criminals) before they are convicted of a crime.The ird can audit anyone any time and you will have to prove how you paid for expensive assets if they are beyond your taxable income.This is good policy a crackdown on drug peddling criminal scum.

    • marty mars 6.1
      30 October 2019 at 12:13 pm

      This is good policy a crackdown on drug peddling criminal scum.

      It's not a crackdown on the corporate sector so yeah nah.

      There is nothing new here

      Good you agree that it is just politics and grandstanding by a disliked leader faltering at every step on his way to political oblivion.

  7. A 7
    30 October 2019 at 12:23 pm

    So many things wrong with this…

  8. Incognito 8
    30 October 2019 at 12:44 pm

    I can’t remember, it was 2016 after all, what again is National’s policy on the Panama Papers and foreign trusts domiciled here in good old New Zealand?

    • Poission 8.1
      30 October 2019 at 1:22 pm

      After 2 years of government,what constraints have been enacted?

      Then it is an irrelevant issue, to what is happening in our suburbs,where people in Shirley,Aranui etc live in a climate of fear.

      Where single maori mothers have to ask mobsters to not enter their properties (whilst not disrepecting them) as they do not want their P on tick ( with disgusting interest payments) or having vehicles left in their empty garages.

      This is not uncommon it is the norm in the hood,and the story is often told (in confidence) on the marae.

      It is time for leadership to be shown on the paepae,and not for the politicians childish games.

  9. Wensleydale 9
    30 October 2019 at 1:52 pm

    Further proof, not that anyone needed it, that National have zero new ideas. It's the same 'bludgeon the poor' misery-go-round they've been peddling for decades. Talk about taking the easy road. "What plays well with the punters, Paula?" "Bashing the poor, Simon. As someone who was once poor and in receipt of state welfare, I should really know better, but I'm a truly jaw-dropping hypocrite and I think we should roll with it anyway." "But… didn't we bash the poor last time?" "We bash the poor every time, Simon. It's just what we do given we're utterly devoid of real-world solutions to actual problems. Besides, the party faithful cream themselves over it." "Righto. Bash the poor it is."

    Brace yourselves for the riveting sequels, “smash the unions”, and “let farmers keep dumping shit in the rivers”. I can’t wait.

  10. Macro 10
    30 October 2019 at 1:57 pm

    Good idea. And we can start with the Nat polis gang who are a pack of environmental vandals and bene bashers. What have they done for the country? And they drive around in their big flashy cars! So I say we cut their benefits and force them to go and do something useful for a living. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

  11. Tiger Mountain 11
    30 October 2019 at 5:20 pm

    2020 is Soymun’s last roll of the dice really. From 2023 boomers will be outnumbered by their successor generations, whose ranks include generations “Rent not own”, and “Student Loan”!

    While the newer voters raised on Roger’n’Ruth’s legacy cannot be assumed likely to vote in any particular way, they do have different experiences of life than smug boomers with multiple properties, National Super, and in denial about climate change. I am of the boomer gen as are other commenters here, and do not fit the stereotypes either, but hundreds of thousands do.

    So Mr Bridges is both trying on a Trump Wannabe persona and modern populism, and catering to NZ’s particular political realities. Sod him. Fight the clown all the way, the Govt. parties need to get their act together on go on the offensive.

  12. Sacha 12
    30 October 2019 at 9:14 pm

    How to argue usefully against bene-bashers. Threaded tweets include links to larger report on the topic.

    https://twitter.com/DrJessBerentson/status/1189435887177715712

  13. mosa 13
    1 November 2019 at 8:22 am

    The worst gang in the country sits in parliament and Bridges is the leader of it.

    The only difference between them and the other gangs is they are exempt from the law being applied too them and their wealthy supporters

  14. peterlepaysan 14
    1 November 2019 at 10:22 pm

    How can anyone "prove" they are not obtaining "ill gotten" gains?

    Bridges is an idiot.

    • Naki man 14.1
      2 November 2019 at 6:43 am

      No you are the idiot

      Proceeds of crime legislation – Auckland District Law Society

      https://www.adls.org.nz › for-the-profession › news-and-opinion › 2014/11

      Nov 7, 2014 – The dividing line from its predecessor, the Proceeds of Crime Act 1991, is that a conviction is no longer required for civil forfeiture. Another …

      • peterlepaysan 14.1.1
        2 November 2019 at 10:27 pm

        You are the illiterate.

        Answer the question.

        How can anyone prove they are not getting "ill gotten gains"?

        FGS we are talking about beneficiaries., not criminals.

        Bridges is "dog whistling" to NZF.

        Bridges is an idiot.

        • Naki man 14.1.1.1
          2 November 2019 at 10:43 pm

          He is talking about gang members, they are criminals.

          If they have assets that they could not pay for on their benefit they will have to show where the money came from. It's been law for years. The ird do the same thing.

  15. peterlepaysan 15
    1 November 2019 at 10:43 pm

    Bridges is running scared of his own party supporters opinions.

    Hence the dog whistling.

    OBTW when is the next election?

    He has to rally what is remaining of national party supporters that are not big business no tax backers.

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