END GAME

Written By: - Date published: 7:03 pm, November 24th, 2024 - 30 comments
Categories: Austerity, australian politics, Brexit, Dirty Politics, Donald Trump, Maori Issues, national, national/act government, nz first, Privatisation, same old national, thinktank - Tags: , ,

Synopsis:

Where are we going under this right wing Coalition government? What does it look like? What do they ultimately want?

Beliefs

Before we get there, I want to quickly re-clarify some core beliefs

I started writing after I took a closer look at the government.

They were already in power.

After I examined their background, narratives, and policies, what drove me to write was: “Information and transparency will help my fellow Kiwis and our country”

  • We could be better prepared to defend against misinformation and lies – i.e. avoid what happened in Brexit and Australia’s Voice Referendum.
  • Knowledge would allow us to make more thoughtful choices and rally for a stronger direction together.
  • Knowledge is power, so the more folks are educated and understand the nuances, the more we can anticipate and work together in solidarity.

Australia’s Voice Referendum Was Inundated With Lies i.e. Disinformation
Brexit was fueled by misinformation & lies – the result wasn’t what was promised

To me, freedom of selection is essential for us all – but freedom is only real if decisions, choices, and trade-offs are upheld with honesty, transparent implications, and holds integrity and the well-being of this nation and all its people, at its core.

That is my belief.

So, What’s The End Game?

Quite simply, what is their goal? What do they want to achieve? What might it look like?

The answer in its most basic form is quite simple —

What they want is control which they can personally benefit from.

That’s it, really!

And control means they can do what they want, irrespective of impacts, under a delivered pretext

Control for them is driven by self interest – and not the interests of the collective or long term welfare.

i.e. It’s not driven by the typical values, metrics, measurements, goals and standards one might expect of traditional good governance and public service.

If this hypothesis stands, it stands to follow, they are only interested in furthering benefits to those who provide them benefits e.g. donors or people, society or organisations that promise a lucrative path ahead.

  • As another examples – Fisheries have donated bigly to New Zealand First for years. Last year, in November, Greenpeace urged National not to give the fisheries portfolio to New Zealand First given the financial links. Of course Luxon did anyway.

To successfully enact their goals, it is fundamentally necessary for them to keep large swathes of people satisfied, satiated and otherwise distracted enough, so they can deliver on their real agenda.

This means 3 themes are necessarily emergent:

  1. Controlling the narrative is foundational. They must control the narrative e.g. presenting harmful policies as “good for the country” e.g. smoke free repeal where the government repeated tobacco industry talking points . It also involves ‘flooding the zone with shit’ – i.e. disorienting the population with an onslaught of misinformation and PR announcements.
  2. Taking down opponents is criticial – Expertise and transparency is a threat under this set up – therefore we see doctors and nurses who speak up about Health NZ get labelled “sabotage” and “resistance”. We see the New Zealand judiciary called “activist judges” and “elites” for doing their job, and receive threats from the sitting NZ government to shut them down. We also see a sitting govenrnment attack media such as TVNZ, and individual journalists such as Mihingarangi Forbes and Jenny May Clarkson.
  3. Grow a home base of supporters who favour party over country, and grow a culture of emotional reactivity in NZ based on misinformation and manipulation. This playbook is leaned on more by those that flank the National Party i.e. New Zealand First and ACT. But National partake as well e.g. with their proven lies about Health NZ, education, blaming Labour for their austerity budget choices. If you want to know what that end result looks like in practice, look to the empire of Rupert Murdoch and those who consume his news.
  • A former socialist, Murdoch has made billions from cultivating rage and influencing society, drawing immense power to himself and his empire.
  • His strategy involves harnessing disinformation / misinformation to cultivate grievances and then target those who are often unrelated to the root causes e.g. immigrants or left wing governments The same strategy was applied during Brexit.

This article could go for a long time as each of these points can be extrapolated further and further.

I’ll try to avoid that.

But the above “goal” may show you why a government could be fundamentally and ENTIRELY uninterested in evidence, facts, inputs, and research backed expertise – in almost every singular policy it touches. (Examples are in the footnotes.)

The above hypothesis also demonstrates why academics, health experts, doctors, nurses, teachers, justices, lawyers, professional journalists and independent newsrooms are all, metaphofically, cannon fodder

i.e. any risks to them controlling the narrative must be diminished and if necessary removed – because they speak what the government does not want to hear, and it does not want the general population to believe.

Before I wrap up, please bear with me here because I need to do a little fine print stuff.

As you already know, the New Zealand government has three branches of government to ensure the appropriate separation of powers. These are called “checks and balances” to make sure power is not consolidated and therefore abused by one body.

The three branches are:

  1. The Executive: The Ministers and their government departments. They run things like finance, bringing proposed laws to parliament that must be approved by the Legislature, and choosing and enacting policies.
  2. The Legislature: Members of Parliament (MPs) and the Governor-General. The role of the Legislature is to make laws (legislation), and to scrutinise the Executive.
  3. The judiciary: The judiciary are judges and the courts. Judges interpret the law in cases that come before the courts by hearing and deciding cases, and they can review decisions of government.

What we’ve seen with this government’s continued attacks on e.g the Waitangi Tribunal, judges etc. are unconstitutional, and speaks to a playbook we’ve seen used in the USA i.e. undermine or stack the judiciary to remove the separation of powers and consolidate powers to the politicians in power.

And by instigating a culture of misinformation, PR, and personal attacks – with ancillary support from allied organisations e.g. Taxpayers Union – they introduce a culture of personal intimidation that influences the Legislature i.e everyone is fair game in this environment – and misinforming the electorate makes them useful to right wing causes to attack MPs or journalists or schools etc. who do not abide by their wishes.

What Does The End Game Look Like In Practice?

In practice it looks like the agenda of whoever and whatever the Executive are working for.

In our system of government, a good way of reviewing it is to follow the money i.e. donor interests, but also dark money backers, sponsorships, related networks of ideology.

This has been explored in other articles on the Tui publication such as Corruption First Strikes Again, Nicola Willis’s Very Unserious Bungling of the Kiwirail Interislander Cancellation, Knives Out fo Kainga Ora, and Pharmac Director, Climate Change Commissioner, Health NZ Directors – The latest to quit this month

But the TLDR version is – under this government, the theme of donors includes oil and gas, tobacco, property development, fisheries, agriculture, road contractors, early childhood education, and far right wing conservative ideologies.

And we’ve seen their policies invariably support those sectors – at the expense of counter parties.

In practice the ideology of the money behind it is manifested in an:

  • Anti-environment agenda – i.e. rolling back climate protections that accepts responsibility and takes action on climate change and preserving natural reserves and wildlife. Ignoring investment in public transport, bicycle networks and natural reserves and conservation.
  • Anti-transgender agenda – e.g. implement a Human Rights Commissioner and Race Relations Commissioner with proven anti-transgender links
  • Privatise and corporatise. As Luxon has already said, nothing is off limits for privatisation under his government – health, roads, schools, hospitals, water.
  • Centralise power in the hands of a few elites in power e.g. the fast-track bill
  • Appointing ‘cronies’ who share a loyalty to their party, irrespective of qualification or suitability e.g. Stephen Rainbow
  • Publicly attacking opponents and undermining experts
  • Remove constraints on corporations and wealthy interests under the guise of “reducing red and green tape”.

In an excellent Guardian article from June, the modus operandi of the right network related to our government, was listed as:

A crash programme of massive cuts; demolishing public services; privatising public assets; centralising political power; sacking civil servants; sweeping away constraints on corporations and oligarchs; destroying regulations that protect workers, vulnerable people and the living world; supporting landlords against tenants; criminalising peaceful protest; restricting the right to strike. Anything ring a bell?

Anything ring a bell, indeed.

David Seymour at an Atlas Network conference

“If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States.”

– Henry A. Wallace, former Vice President of the United States

The end game for the far right agenda is ultimately and wholly unconcerned with what happens to our hospitals, our doctors and nurses, and top talent.

It’s unconcerned with climate change, emissions and ‘woke’ things like animals, seas and forests.

It’s unconcerned about the true long term cost of any of its decisions that don’t affect themself as individuals…

It is predicated on control of power by the true elites – and not the co-opted word the right use to describe those with information and expertise.

So long as they can find new people or groups to blame, accuse and abuse, the grift can go on for a long time….

This is why the best template for what it will look like is a replica of the UK Tory Britain and the US Republican America: increasing transfer of wealth to the wealthy, reduced regulations and costs to businesses, less environmental care and increase in environmental destruction, continued dismantling of core health infrastructure and removal of top talent, continued appointment of ‘cronies’ irrespective of qualification, more hardship in the population, and increasing efforts by the wealthy and powerful to exert control.

While we are less mature on the continuum towards right wing characterisistc of the US / UK, it doesn’t mean we are not moving there – and as quickly as they can do it.

New Zealand’s unique Te Tiriti / Treaty of Waitangi is also a wrinkle they need ironed out.

PS

Some features of the current coalition include inducing a wider and deeper recession through an unforced austerity budget, a four year high unemployment rate and rising, more debt (not to save lives or build infrastructure), “a sustained productivity slowdown”, the intentional dismantling of our public health system as the government privatises health by stealth, torpedoing our climate progress and plummeting NZ’s international environmental ratings in a short 12 months – leading to NZ potentially kicked out of international climate coalitions and breaching trade deals, ignoring abuse in care as it happens and policies that continue to harm our most vulnerable – from those who rely on food banks, to the disabled, to domestic violence victims, to tamariki to high needs children

This is an excerpt of End Game – published on Mountain Tui’s Substack

30 comments on “END GAME ”

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  1. Patricia Bremner 1
    24 November 2024 at 10:18 pm

    Thank you Mountain Tui. That is an excellent reference document, and the best explanation I have read in one place.

  2. Drowsy M. Kram 2
    24 November 2024 at 11:30 pm

    Control for them is driven by self interest – and not the interests of the collective or long term welfare.

    yes Maybe suited for corporate management, and utterly unsuited to govern Aotearoa NZ.

    Fast track is only one part of a sweeping regime of backwards-facing policies, such as lifting the ban on offshore oil and gas exploration (ironically, that ban was imposed by the 2017-20 Labour government, with whom New Zealand First i.e. Winston Peters, Shane Jones, et al., was in coalition). Such as exempting farmers from the Emissions Trading Scheme, as part of a whole raft of measures undoing what little had been done about climate change. Such as the full-on assault on Māori and the Treaty. Such as bashing workers, unions and beneficiaries and deliberately creating mass unemployment. Such as handing over huge sums of taxpayers’ money to landlords and charter schools, and corporate welfare for transnational corporations. Not to mention reversing NZ’s world leading tobacco control regime.

    https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2024/08/14/guest-blog-murray-horton-were-on-the-fast-track-to-nowhere-the-great-leap-backwards/

  3. thinker 3
    25 November 2024 at 6:23 am

    The nearest I've got to seeing 'it' is General Smedley Butler's "War is a Racket". I'll put links to his wikipedia bio and to the document itself below.

    My own belief is that we (no longer based on race or skin colour, but rather the bottom x% of wealthy) should imagine ourselves to be today's equivalent of Cecil Rhodes' African natives, or the East India Company's natives.

    The British Empire was based on exploiting other peoples. This Empire (I think it's an empire without borders) is based on exploiting the poor. It wouldn't surprise me if there's not an element of population control through disease in there as well. But, if you go back far enough, you get A) the first understanding that the world is spherical, and therefore limited, and B) based on that understanding, a desire to grab as many of the world's finite valuable resources as possible.

    Smedley Butler was brought 'into the tent' on the belief that he was one of their kind, but he had enough morals not to be. Instead of turning his back on them, though, he went along just far enough that he got to see what was behind the curtain. His experience was twofold: 1. He sent men into battle and then realised that the purpose wasn't protecting his country but exploiting other countries for the rich, and B) He was asked to be a figurehead leader of a deposed or assassinated Franklin D Roosevelt (http://www.fdrlibraryvirtualtour.org/page03-06.asp)

    Our world, at the moment at least, is less about war and more about corporates, but I think it's possible to draw parallels.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler

    https://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html

  4. Kay 4
    25 November 2024 at 9:48 am

    God that's scary reading.

    Tui, obviously on this site you're preaching to the converted anyway. What is the best way to reach those who don't understand (or are in denial) what they voted for?

    • thinker 4.1
      25 November 2024 at 10:03 am

      Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in All the Presidents Men is on Netflix and I watched it again recently, wondering if what they did would be the same today or whether they would be stopped before they began.

      In NZ we face the additional hurdle of persuading people that "…it could happen here…"

    • Chris 4.2
      25 November 2024 at 10:38 am

      Part of the agenda involves protecting National's image as the moderate voice of reason. That facade needs taking down for starters. Maybe we need a book called "Corporate Greed for Dummies"?

      • tc 4.2.1
        25 November 2024 at 5:11 pm

        Remember they're just the ones chosen to stand on the supplied soap boxes, read the script, get away the talking points in reply to the patsy questions etc

        If challenged, play the victim, intimidate, threaten if possible

        Dont think there's any regard for National as some brand they need to protect it's everyone for themselves as the continued 'regeneration' that Key triggered continues with managers and lawyers.

      • thinker 4.2.2
        25 November 2024 at 5:27 pm

        @Chris Why don't you just re-cover your copy of Hagar's "Dirty Politics"?

    • Obtrectator 4.3
      25 November 2024 at 1:17 pm

      They tend to be very hard to reach until something's done by the government that has an adverse effect on them personally.

      I know of one Trump-supporting, Natz-fundraising type who expressed disgust at the inadequate level of support care in the retirement village housing an acquaintance or two. One felt like telling them: tax don't pay for themselves.

    • Mountain Tui 4.4
      26 November 2024 at 7:37 pm

      Hi Kay – my longer piece has some suggestions at the end, but in terms of reaching folks, the best thing to do is to start with something concrete and real. i.e. the "think tank" line is not a great opener.

    • roblogic 4.5
      28 November 2024 at 5:41 pm

      In my experience it's usually a waste of time trying to engage RWNJ's online. People seem to listen to me more in person (probably because I loom over them cheeky).

      I really tried to talk sense to some conservative Christians on X, making pretty solid arguments based on the most ancient teachings of hospitality and helping one's neighbour, but they just DGAF and revert to strawman arguments and mockery.

      So now I am hanging out where the sky is blue (under a new pseudonym)

  5. roblogic 5
    25 November 2024 at 4:03 pm

    Under Luxon and Seymour, the Executive (the government ministers with decision making power) want to undermine any rival powers, including the Legislature, Judiciary and the Media. And further, they seek to demolish Education and Health in order to smash unions and any form of expertise that questions the Regime.

    Capitalism is incompatible with Democracy. The slaves of Mammon are happy to offer human sacrifices to their disgusting idol if it means a higher profit margin.

    • Jack 5.1
      26 November 2024 at 5:57 am

      The good news for them is that Trump will show how to do it.

    • Dolomedes III 5.2
      1 December 2024 at 7:48 pm

      "Capitalism is incompatible with Democracy."

      Jeez, someone tell the Germans, the French, the Swedes, the Danes, the Dutch etc that they've been doing it wrong for decades. All of those countries are democracies that have a mixed economy i.e. a vigorous capitalist private sector and strong public services.

  6. Mike the Lefty 6
    25 November 2024 at 4:54 pm

    Yes but the sheeple in this country will believe what they want to believe, that is everything is on track, the economy is improving, the roads will be all fixed, the hospitals will work twice as well on half as much money, education will be freed from the insidious grasp of the teachers' unions.

    We just won't talk about the environment and unemployment because they don't matter anyway.

    Co-incidentally I am presently reading 1984 by George Orwell. A lot of stuff in this book is ominously paralleled by what is happening in NZ nowadays. Except Orwell had it wrong – he assumed the left would be the ones to screw the country, it turned out to be the right.

    • roblogic 6.1
      25 November 2024 at 5:08 pm

      That is true. People will believe what they want to believe until reality hits them in the face. Just like the Covid deniers who ended up dead. NACT voters haven't experienced life on welfare or tried to navigate the health system

    • Anne 6.2
      25 November 2024 at 7:00 pm

      Orwell began writing "1984" just after the end of WW2. It was published in 1949. It was during the Stalinist regime so its not surprising he saw the rise of totalitarianism in a left perspective. But of course time has proven how wrong the Western states were in their analyses. Totalitarianism is – and always has been – a tool used by the right to obtain absolute political power. It was no different in Stalinist Russia.

  7. Darien Fenton 7
    26 November 2024 at 3:38 pm

    "A crash programme of massive cuts; demolishing public services; privatising public assets; centralising political power; sacking civil servants; sweeping away constraints on corporations and oligarchs; destroying regulations that protect workers, vulnerable people and the living world; supporting landlords against tenants; criminalising peaceful protest; restricting the right to strike. Anything ring a bell?" Bloody hell it sure does. Here, as elsewhere we could add demonising the poor, cutting safety nets, raising fear in the community of "others" including migrants and doing the whole tough on crime stuff. Add to that – put a former "Business man" in charge, tell him to speak fast, tell lies and take no prisoners, we are getting near the nightmare that is Trump’s second term in America.

    • Mountain Tui 7.1
      26 November 2024 at 7:39 pm

      It's definitely a Tory UK run. I suspect the second Trump term will be more like a dictatorship

      Here in NZ – "While we are less mature on the continuum towards right wing characterisistc of the US / UK, it doesn’t mean we are not moving there – and as quickly as they can do it."

  8. roblogic 8
    27 November 2024 at 11:50 am

    Jonathan Pie makes good points. Kamala was/is the status quo and the Establishment. Trump represents "change" to the (deluded) working class.

    • Obtrectator 8.1
      27 November 2024 at 12:53 pm

      "Trump represents "change" to the (deluded) working class."

      Yes, never underestimate the "boredom factor" in politics, especially when they're being presented more for entertainment than for information.

      (But when it comes to "status quo", doesn't that exactly describe the 1940s-born generation, which by 2029 will have been in power for all but 8 of the previous 36 years? It's been really gruesome to see them hanging around and hanging around.)

  9. SPC 9
    27 November 2024 at 3:17 pm

    Prebble wants assets sales and for super to become contribution based.

    https://archive.li/Gduim#selection-3965.0-4005.90

    • Dolomedes III 9.1
      1 December 2024 at 8:10 pm

      Selling off public assets to solve short-term financial problems is obviously not a sustainable strategy. What do you do when you've hocked off all the family silver? Key's sale of 49 % of our hydro capacity was a shocker, and created a precedent for private interests to make money from New Zealand's water – Martyn Bradbury is wrong most of the time, but I think he's on the money when he says the genesis of "Three Waters" was influenced by Key's hydro sell-off.

      On the other hand, I agree with Prebble when he says "there are whole ministries that would never be missed". What essential services do we get from the Ministry for Women? The Ministry for Pacific Peoples? Ministry for Ethnic Communities? Ministry of Youth Development?

      • Muttonbird 9.1.1
        1 December 2024 at 10:13 pm

        On the other hand, I agree with Prebble when he says "there are whole ministries that would never be missed". What essential services do we get from the Ministry for Women? The Ministry for Pacific Peoples? Ministry for Ethnic Communities? Ministry of Youth Development?

        Never be missed by white people, you mean.