If one were to imagine a really bad re-make of The Fast and the Furious with really poor production execution and bad actors, one could realistically dream up something that would resemble the coalition government, despite the obligatory (imaginary) movie’s disclaimer. Such an exercise in fantasy land would inevitably end up as a Fast Flop at the box office. Heck, it even has a middle-aged bald actor with a greasy surname as the main lead, just like the coalition government.
The coalition government treats New Zealand society as a business that has to cut costs to make a profit and that has to satisfy its shareholders who are definitely not all New Zealanders.
Given the fast-track scheme, it is also possible the party regards democratic deliberation and consultation as a cost.
The coalition government’s business mentality sacrifices anything and everything (the means justify the end) for economic efficiency, which explains the crudeness of its political expediency such as pushing through laws and law changes under urgency in Parliament, cutting down time for Select Committees to ask for, receive, and review & discuss submissions from the public (including experts) and to report back to Parliament. In other words, the coalition government takes short-cuts and cuts corners to quickly push through its mendacious agenda. It goes without saying that this is intrinsically undemocratic and the Fast-Track Approvals Bill is the most mendacious move so far by the coalition government as it bypasses the RMA and other existing legislation and hands all decision-making power to three men who have shown to have little respect for due democratic process and only seem to be accountable to their parties and respective leaders.
Consultation, participation, and deliberation should be at the heart of the democratic process. However, these take time, sometimes considerable time. But time is money, according to business leaders who argue that we cannot afford holding up things as this would be damaging [to] the economy.
The coalition government’s agenda is more of the same boring stuff that lacks imagination and boldness. The four dreary D’s of the three dorky D’s (i.e. Chris Bishop, Simeon Brown, and Shane Jones) are: dig, drill, drain, and dairy. Exporting more raw products in larger volumes is not an efficient plan to lift this nation’s prosperity and it will be even less effective in lifting our health and wellbeing. Let’s spend $4 billion on potholes instead of funding cancer treatments.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic many of us have re-evaluated and rebalanced our lives and changed our perceptions and priorities of what is more and less important and urgent. This was perhaps a silver lining of the pandemic. Unfortunately, economic dogma has remained unchanged, as immutable as dogmas are. Less is more in our daily lives. We have become slaves to technology and have become more superficial too; it takes time to [learn to] appreciate and enjoy the good things in and of life.
More of the same boring stuff at an even faster pace is a recipe for unhappy workers who burn out even faster and more frequently. This doesn’t just apply to so-called knowledge workers but to all of us, including part-timers who may soon no longer enjoy enough sick leave to fully recover, which should give us pause to think.
Unlike good business managers, this coalition of mediocre neo-authoritarians, arrogant as they are, has not shown any signs of ability to learn from mistakes and is on a fast-track to fast-fail. However, we don’t need worry about them because no matter what, cosy jobs will await them on Boards where they can continue practicing their ill-fated foolishness.
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